SF 

487 


IC-NRLF 


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By  WAITER  HQCAf 


GIFT   OF 
.pP.K  HA.Y/LCT  RAY  B.S.'IS  £X,A2 


AGRIC. 
LIBRARY 


THE  MISSOURI  STATE 
POULTRY  EXPERIMENT 

STATION 
MOUNTAIN  GROVE, 


• 


Photographed  by  request  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Petaluma,  California. 

These  hens  weighed  less  than  four  pounds  each,  and  laid  131  pounds,  2 
oz.  of  eggs.  They  won  the  prize  for  laying  the  greatest  weight  in  eggs,  in 
the  national  egg  laying  contest.  Each  hen's  eggs  would  have  sold  for  $5.40 
on  the  Petaluma  market  if  reduced  to  No-  1  eggs.  They  are  the  result  of 
five  years  breeding  by  the  author  from  common  Petaluma  Single  Comb 
White  Leghorns.  It  is  possible  for  the  reader  to  do  the  same  with  almost 
any  breed  by  following  instructions  in  this  book. 


The  Call  of  the  Hen 


Or   the  Science  of  the 


Selection  and  Breeding  of  Poultry 


BY 


WALTER    HOGAN 

\\ 


Copyrighted  1913  in  the  United  States  and  Canada,  Great  Britain, 

Australia,  New  Zealand,  France,  Germany,  and  Denmark. 

(All   Rights   Reserved.) 


PRICE,        -        $2.00 


PETALUMA,     CALIFORNIA: 
THE     PETALUMA     DAILY     COURIER 
1913 


& 

I  o 

*B» 
UBRABI, 


Dedicated 

To  the  Poultrymen 

Who,  Like  the  Author, 

Do  Not  Know  It  All 


FOREWORD 


The  writer's  introduction  into  poultry  keeping  was  in  the 
city  of  Boston,  Massachusetts,  in  the  autumn  of  1857.  By  the 
spring  of  '68  I  had  a  flock  of  nearly  400  birds,  among  them 
a  lot  of  the  best  Single  Comb  White  Leghorns  that  I  could 
find.  I  went  in  person  to  New  York  City  to  get  them.  My 
friends  thought  such  extensive  poultry  keeping  the  limit  of 
folly,  and  freely  remarked  that  I  was  going  crazy.  In  those 
days  eggs  were  almost  worthless  during  the  spring  and  sum- 
mer months,  but  would  often  sell  for  fifty  cents  per  dozen 
in  the  winter.  This  set  me  to  thinking  that  perhaps  it  might 
be  possible  to  increase  the  egg  yield  in  the  winter,  and  by  so 
doing,  make  the  fad  a  better  paying  proposition.  Through 
my  experiments  I  found  that  all  hens  were  not  alike,  that 
some  would  be  very  good  table  fowl  and  poor  layers.  Others 
would  be  very  good  layers  and  poor  table  fowl  while  still  other 
hens  would  be  very  fair  table  fowl  and  very  fair  layers.  At  this 
time  we  had  all  the  old  fashioned  breeds  we  could  get,  and 
discarded  them  all  for  the  Single  Comb  White  and  Brown 
Leghorns.  I  had  decided  that  knowledge  wras  of  commercial 
value  only  when  applied,  and  having  a  working  knowledge  of 
the  anatomy  and  physiology  of  the  hen,  I  decided  to  try 
to  turn  the  same  to  a  commercial  account,  and  in  a  couple  of 
years  had  evolved  what  is  now  known  as  the  Walter  Hogan 
the  purpose  you  desire,  by  the  relative  thickness  of  and  rlis- 
System,  which  consists  of  ascertaining  the  value  of  a  hen  for 
tance  apart  of  the  pelvic  bones.  Before  1873  I  had  communi- 
cated this  discovery  to  some  of  my  friends  under  promise  of 
secrecy.  One  of  them,  Albert  Brown,  once  a  well  known 
banker  of  Amesbury,  Mass.,  and  H.  O.  Farrar,  of  the  same 
place,  an  overseer  in  the  Hamilton  Mills,  and  a  light  Brahma 
specialist.  After  using  the  above  so  called  system  for  a  num- 
ber of  years,  I  developed  a  new  method  which  I  have  taught 
in  part  privately  for  some  years,  and  which  I  now  introduce 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN.  7 

to  the  public  under  the  title  of  "The  Call  of  the  Hen,"  or  "The 
Science  of  Selecting  and  Breeding  Poultry." 

My  friends  early  prophesied  that  my  penchant  for  inven- 
tion would  land  me  in  the  poor  house  in  my  old  age.  So  by 
some  occult  inspiration  I  was  induced  to  abstain  from  publish- 
ing any  part  of  my  discoveries  until  1904,  when,  by  the  advise 
of  Ex-Congressman  Haldor  E.  Boen,  of  Minnesota,  to  whom 
I  had  confided  my  poultry  secrets  some  years  previous,  I  de- 
cided to  publish  only  my  first  discovery,  known  as  the  "Walter 
Hogan  System,"  (which  will  be  found  in  the  latter  part  of  this 
work),  after  the  same  had  been  tested  at  the  Minnesota  State 
Experimental  Station  by  Professor  Hoverstadt,  the  Superin- 
tendent of  the  station.  However,  before  taking  any  steps  to 
bring  this  matter  before  the  public,  I  wrote  to  some  thirty 
or  more  poultry  judges,  who  were  supposed  to  be  selected  as 
judges  to  officiate  at  the  coming  poultry  show  to  be  held  in 
Buffalo  during  the  exhibition  at  that  place  in  1901,  asking 
them  if  they  knew  of  any  way  to  tell  when  a  pullet 
was  about  to  lay.  I  thought  that  if  they  did  not  know  that 
much  of  the  laying  proposition,  I  would  be  safe  in  going  ahead 
with  publishing  my  secrets.  The  letters  I  received  were  left 
in  Minnesota  when  I  came  to  California  shortly  before  the 
earthquake  in  1906,  so  I  cannot  name  the  judges  at  present; 
but  they  will  remember  me  as  the  proprietor  of  the  Fergus 
Falls  Woolen  Mills,  and  I  must  say  they  replied  in  a  very  cour- 
teous manner,  saying  there  was  no  way  except  the  general 
appearance  of  the  bird,  as  to  its  maturity  of  form,  redness  of 
comb  and  wattles,  singing,  looking  for  nest,  etc.  One  only  of 
the  number  charged  me  one  dollar  for  this  information. 

Failing  health  obliged  me  to  dispose  of  my  manufacturing 
business  and  retire  to  the  farm,  and  it  was  in  the  .spring  of 
1905  before  I  published  my  "Walter  Hogan  System,"  when  it 
appeared  in  a  number  of  poultry  papers.  (See  Reliable  Poul- 
try Journal,  March,  1905.)  I  did  not  copyright  the  work  at 
that  time,  although  my  experience  in  mechanical  inventions 
had  taught  me  that  I  should  have  done  so,  and  the  following 
August  imitations  began  to  appear,  until  in  1912  a  number 
of  different  parties  in  the  United  States  and  foreign  countries 
were  claiming  authorship,  and  selling  it  under  the  same  or  dif- 
ferent titles. 

My  years  of  research  and  expense  brought  me  no  financial 


8  THE     CALL     OP     THE     HEN. 

returns,  and  in  the  spring  of  1906,  I  left  Minnesota  for  Cali- 
fornia, a  physical  and  financial  wreck.  After  having  regained 
my  health,  I  began  here  at  Petaluma  to  build  up  the  same 
kind  of  a  flock  of  layers  that  I  had  done  in  previous  years, 
with  the  idea  of  publishing  my  entire  work  when  I  should 
have  bred  up  a  strain  of  200-egg  hens  and  better. 

After  I  removed  to  California,  Professor  M.  E.  Jaffa,  of 
the  University  of  California,  became  interested  in  the  matter, 
and  at  the  request  of  the  Petaluma  Poultry  Association,  had 
the  discovery  tested  at  the  California  Poultry  Experimental 
Station  for  two  years,  and  continued  for  two  years  longer  for 
the  purpose  of  determining  the  value  of  four-year-old  hens 
as  layers,  as  it  is  outlined  in  this  book  in  the  chapter  relating 
to  the  selection  of  the  best  layers  in  a  flock. 

It  was  also  tested  in  New  Zealand  by  D.  D.  Hyde,  chief 
poultry  expert  for  the  New  Zealand  government,  and  Prof. 
Brown,  of  the  New  Zealand  Poultry  Experiment  Station.  I 
have  repeatedly  been  requested  by  'my  friends  in  different 
parts  of  the  world  to  publish  the  full  matter  in  book  form, 
but  poor  health  and  lack  of  sufficient  funds  have  prevented  me 
from  doing  so  until  now.  As  this  work  will  be  copyrighted,  I 
do  not  anticipate  the  literary  pirates  will  raid  it  as  they  have 
my  former  work.  In  justice  to  the  poultry  fraternity  .1 
want  to  say  that  while  I  have  been,  and  am  now,  a  member 
of  the  American  Poultry  Association,  and  have  raised  poultry 
fifty-six  years,  and  now  raise  them  by  the  thousand,  I  have 
never  in  the  past  classed  myself  as  a  poultryman  in  the  strict 
sense  of  the  word.  Hundreds  have  known  me  as  an  inventor, 
and  woolen  manufacturer,  where  one  would  know  me  as  a 
poultry  crank  and  the  only  apology  I  have  for  offering 
this  book  to  the  public  in  a  field  already  crowded  with  poultry 
literature,  is  the  earnest  solicitation  of  my  friends. 

WALTER  HOGAN, 
Petaluma,  California,  July  7,  1912. 


The  Call  of  the  Hen  or  the  Science   of 
the  Selection   and   Breeding   of   Poultry 


By   WALTER    HOGAN 

CHAPTER  I. 


I  received  a  letter  in  the  winter  of  1910  from  a  woman  in 
Oregon  which  read  as  follows. 

Dear  Sir:  My  husband  is  a  machinist.  He  is  getting 
old  and  his  health  is  failing.  We  have  both  worked  hard  all 
our  lives  and  have  saved  enough  to  buy  a  small  place  in  the 
country.  We  can  no  longer  do  hard  work,  and  in  looking  for 
some  light  occupation  that  \vould  bring  weekly  returns,  we 
have  looked  favorably  on  the  poultry  business.  We  have 
kept  a  small  flock  of  hens  on  a  town  lot  for  a  number  of 
years  and  think  we  have  done  well  with  them.  We  also  take 
four  poultry  papers,  but  each  one  tells  a  different  story,  and 
we  cannot  decide  what  to  do.  We  have!  been  years  accumu- 
lating our  little  savings,  and  if  we  should  lose  them  we  would 
hjave  no  resources  left  for  our  old  age.  I  enclose  two  articles 
from  the  September,  1910  number  of  the  ''Pacific  Fanciers 
Monthly."  One  article  gives  me  to  understand  that  it  is  almost 
hopeless  to  think  of  making  a  living  with  hens  if  wfe  depend  on 
selling  eggs  and  poultry  on  the  market.  The  other  article 
holds  out  the  promise  of  a  possible  income  of  a  thousand  dol- 
lars per  year  from  300  hens  if  handled  under  right  conditions. 
One  means  utter  failure  and  bankruptcy  in  market  eggs  and 
poultry,  and  the  other  means  the  fullest  measure  of  success. 
Both  of  these  articles  are  in  the  same  number  and  one  follows 
the  other  on  the  same  page.  How  can  you  reconcile  these  two 
conflicting  opinions? 

(The  articles  follow)  : 


10 


THE     CAL1L     OF     THE     HEN. 


A  Common  Question  Wisely  Answered. 
By  Geo.  Scott. 

Can  a  living  be  made  from  poultry?  Probably  there  is  no  one 
who  has -attained  distinction  in  the  avicultural  arena  to  whom 
this  question  has  not  been  put  hundreds  of  times.  And  it  is  a 
question  of  perennial  interest  to  the  poultry  keeping  public. 
There  are  many  people  who  will  tell  you  that  a  living,  and  a 
good  living,  can  be  made  from  poultry  keeping  alone  and  as 
proof  of  their  statement  will  point  out  the  numerous  men 
whose  names  are  household  words  in  the  fancy.  On  the  other 
hand  a  vast  majority  will  most  emphatically  give  uttenance  to 
statements  calculated  to  deter  any  poultry  keeping  aspirant 
and  give  weight  to  their  contention  by  citing  hundreds  of 
cases  where  men  have  tried  and  Hailed.  '  Truly  the  mass  of 
evidence  appears  to  be  with  the  latter  belief,  for  it  is  an  indubit- 
able fact  that  for  every  person  who  succeeds  in  this  business 
a  hundred  fail.  But,  looking  at  the  mjatter  from  a  logical 
point  of  view,  the  fact  that  a  minority  rely  on  poultry  for  their 
daily  bread  is  ample  evidence  that  it  is  quite  possible  to  make 
a  living  out  of  poultry  keeping,  and  the  abnormal  number  of 
failures  merely  proves  that  the  business  is  a  difficult  one. 

The  fact  that  a  man  has  failed  in  some  other  business  takes 
up  poultry  keeping  with  a  like  result,  in  no  sense  proves  that 
poultry  keeping  does  not  pay;  it  is  only  what  could  be  expect- 
ed, and  any  experienced  aviculturist  would  have  prophesied 
such  a  result.  It  is,  however,  useless  to  explain  such  things 
to  the  man  who  is  contemplating  starting  a  poultry  farm.  To 
suggest  that  he  is  unfit  for  the  task  would  be  taken  by  him 
as  an  insult,  for  the  public,  in  its  ignorance,  has  conceived  the 
idea  that  poultry  management  is  the  simplest  work  that  any- 
one can  think  of.  In  fact,  I  question  whether  an  outsider  con- 
siders it  to  be  work  at  all. 

Such  a  hold  has  this  belief  obtained  on  the  man  in  the  street 
that  it  almost  amounts  to  a  superstition,  and  until  the  fallacy 
is  exploded  the  number  of  the  unsuccessful  will  be  constantly 
increased.  The  public,  apparently,  cannot  understand  the 
difference  between  keeping  a  few  fowls  as  a  paying  hobby  and 
managing  a  poultry  farm  is  an  enormous  one,  and  that  the 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN.  11 

minor  difficulties  to  be  met  with  in  the  former  case  are  increas- 
ed a  thousand  fold  in  the  latter. 

Probably  there  is  no  other  business  which  calls  for  so  many 
qualifications  as  that  of  the  poultry  farmer,  and  to  say  that 
the  man  who  has  been  successful  in  any  other  walk  in  life  is  to- 
tally unfitted  for  this  business,  though  somewhat  exaggerated, 
will  give  the  tyro  some  idela  of  what  is  wanted.  An  intimate,  de- 
tailed knowledge  of  poultry  management,  an  unlimited  reserve 
of  perseverance,  determination,  and  resource,  a  genuine  love 
for  fowls,  the  cjapacity  for  hard,  continuous  work  for  seven 
days  a  week,  combined  with  business  knowledge  and  thrifty 
management,  are  all  essential,  and  will,  with  ordinary  luck, 
lead  one  to  the  desired  goal. 

I  am  very  dubious  as  to  whether  (a  living  can  be  made  from 
utility  poultry  keeping  pure  and  simple;  that  is  to  say,  by  sell- 
ing eggs  and  birds  solely  for  edible  purposes.  A  profit  can  un- 
doubtedly be  made,  but  it  is  so  infinitesimal  that  the  income 
derived  from  this  source  alone  would,  I  am  afraid,  scarcely 
suffice  for  the  needs  of  the  most  parsimonious.  If  it  is  decided 
to  specialize  in  utility  points,  pure  bred  stock  must  be  kept  of 
the  popular  varieties,  and  eggs  for  hatching,  day-old  chicks, 
and  stock  birds  must  be  sold.  This  will  make  all  the  differ- 
ence, and  once  a  connection  has  been  worked  up  there  is  no 
reason  why  the  business  should  not  pay,  and  pay  well. 

The  breeding  of  exhibition  birds  is,  without  doubt,  the  most 
profitable  branch,  and  when  once  a  name  has  been  made  stock 
and  eggs  can  be  disposed  of  at  most  remunerative  prices.  Suc- 
cess, however,  cannot  be  attained  at  once — it  is  often  the  work 
of  years — and  many  breeders  never  rise  from  the  ranks  of 
mediocrity.  Moreover,  much  capital  is  required  to  start  an  ex- 
hibition poultry  farm,  any  ones  expenses  incurred  in  the  man- 
agement are  infinitely  heavier  than  is  the  case  where  utility 
points  are  the  only  consideration. 

I  would  not  advise  anyone  unversed  in  poultry  culture  to 
give  up  a  situation,  however  poor,  in  order  to  go  in  for  poultry 
keeping  as  a  means  of  earning  a  livelihood.  To  think  of  such  a 
thing  is  foolish  in  the  extreme,  but  for  anyone  to  burn  one's 
boats  behind  one  in  this  way  would  be  suicidal.  What  I  would 
suggest  to  poultry  keeping  aspirants  (and  I  believe  the  number 
of  these  reaches  well  into  four  figures)  is  that  they  scould  keep 


12  THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 

as  many  fowls  as  they  can  attend  to  properly  in  their  /spare 
hours,  and  see  what  profits  they  can  make  from  the  birds. 
Above  all,  they  must  find  out  if  they  have  a  genuine  love  for 
the  work,  for  without  this  nothing  can  be  done.  When  a 
name  has  been  made  as  a  breeder  of  good  stock,  then  and  then 
only,  is  it  time  for  the  amateur  to  consider  the  advisability  of 
adopting  poultry  keeping  as  a  business;  and  long  before  this 
point  is  reached  the  glamor  of  the  idea  may  have  faded,  for 
the  life  of  a  poultry  keeper  is,  contrary  to  popular  belief,  far 
from  being  a  bed  of  roses.  Practically  all  the  men  who  are 
today  making  a  living  from  poultry  commenced  keeping  fowls 
as  a  hobby,  and  the  knowledge  and  experience  which  they 
gained  in  this  way  enabled  them  to  found  the  establishments 
which  are  today  of  world  wide  reputation. 

To  those  who  are  qualified  for  the  work  poultry  keeping  of- 
fers a  good  living,  but  to  the  idle,  the  thriftless,  or  the  pleasure 
seekers  of  this  holiday-making  age,  it  offers  more  desolate 
prospects  than  any  other  trade  or  profession.  In  this  business, 
nothing  but  dogged  determination  will  enable  the  beginner  to 
climb  the  rugged,  precipitous  path  to  success,  and  anyone  who 
is  lacking  in  this  essential,  or  who  is  afraid  of  hard,  continuous 
work,  will  save  himself  the  obloquy  of  failure  by  choosing 
some  other  field  in  which  to  exercise  his  powers. 


THE  GOOD  LITTLE  HEN. 

What  She  Will  Do  For  You  If  You  Will  Treat  Her  Right. 
By  Mrs.  A.  Basley 

There  is  money  in  poultry  for  the  man  and  especially  for  the 
woman  that  will  dig  it  out.  This  I  can  assure  the  Fanciers 
Monthly  readers  if  they  are  in  doubt. 

"Dig  it  out,"  seems  a  curious  way  of  putting  it.  When  I 
spent  a  summer  in  a  big  mining  camp  in  Colorado  I  noticed  a 
great  many  holes  in  the  sides  of  the  mountains.  "Yes,"  said  a 
miner,  "and  not  five  percent  of  those  holes  have  paid."  It  was 
appalling  to  think  of  the  thousands  of  dollars  lost  in  those  holes. 
"Give  me  a  hundred  hens,"  said  I.  The  money  it  took  to  dig 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN.  13 

one  of  those  unprofitable  holes  would  have  started  a  fine  poul- 
try plant,  and  the  good  little  hens,  would  have  brought  in  a 
living  for  their  owners. 

There  is  money  in  poultry !  Every  inch  of  a  hen  is  valuable. 
I  would  like  to  give  you  one  of  the  values  in  the  hen  and  what 
it  costs  to  keep  her. 

First,  there  are  the  eggs  she  will  lay  if  properly  fed  and 
treated.  Twelve  do*: en  eggs  per  year  is  the  average,  although 
I  personally  know  poultry  plants  now  being  operated  in  South- 
ern California  where  the  output  as  shown  by  carefully  kept 
records  is  sixteen  dozen  per  year.  The  average  price  at  the 
Arlington  egg  ranch  for  the  past  year  was  thirty-one  cents  a 
dozen,  because  the  proprietor  arranged  to  have  his  hens  laying 
when  eggs  cost  the  most  in  the  fall  and  winter  months. 

Sixteen  dozen  eggs  at  thirty-one  cents  a  dozen  means  each 
hen  brings  in  $4.96  in  eggs  whilst  her  food  costs  ten  cents  per 
month  or  $1.00  per  year,  leaving  $3.76  as  profit  for  eggs. 

There  is  still  another  source  of  profit  in  the  hen  and  that 
is  in  the  droppings.  At  several  of  the  Experiment  Stations  it 
has  been  found  that  a  hen  voids  about  100  pounds  of  droppings 
per  year.  These  droppings  have  been  analyzed  and  show  a 
value  as  fertilizer  of  from  thirty  to  thirty-five  cents  per  hen; 
the  value  being  controlled  not  only  by  the  market  demand  but 
also  by  the  quality;  the  droppings  being  richer  as  fertilizer 
where  the  food  was  rich  in  protein,  and  where  the  hens  are 
fed  the  ''full  and  plenty"  method. 

"What  do  you  do  with  the  hen  droppings?"  I  asked  a  be- 
ginner. "Throw  them  away,  glad  to  get  rid  of  them,"  was  the 
reply.  At  the  rate  of  ten  dollars  per  ton  that  was  a  vAaste  of 
fifty  cents  per  hen.  Two  of  our  neighbors  had  lawns  which 
were  in  so  bad  a  condition  from  the  soil  being  worn  out  that 
they  were  on  the  point  of  having  them  dug  out  and  new  soil 
put  in,  and  the  whole  re-sowed,  when  they  thought  of  their 
hen  droppings.  These  they  had  spread  over  the  lawns  and 
then  raked  off  again  and  the  lawns  well  watered.  In  a  month's 
time  those  lawns  looked  beautiful,  better  far  than  if  they  had 
been  re-made  and  at  far  less  cost. 

When  I  lived  in  the  Eastern  states  my  window  garden 
was  the  envy  and  admiration  of  every  one  that  passed;  there 


14  THE     CALL     OP     THE     HEN. 

were  flowers  galore  all  through  the  dark  winter  gloom  and  cold 
frosty  days.  I  loved  my  plants,  took  good  care  of  them  in 
every  way,  but  the  secret  of  the  wonderful  blossoms  was  hen 
manure ! 

Once  a  month  I  half  filled  a  bucket  with  hen  droppings, 
poured  a  kettlefull  of  boiling  water  on  it,  filling  the  bucket 
with  the  water,  stirred  it  with  a  stick,  let  it  settle  and  cool  and 
watered  the  plants  with  that  liquid.  I  found  that  hen  drop- 
pings enrich  the  ground  for  almost  all  plants  better  than  any- 
thing; roses  are  the  only  exception  that  I  have  found,  they 
doing  much  better  when  fertilized  with  well-rotted  cow  ma- 
nure. 

But  to  return  to  our  hen.  She  gives  thirty  pounds  weight 
of  eggs  or  sixteen  dozen  valued  at  $4.96,  she  also  gives  100 
pounds  of  valuable  fertilizer  worth  here  $10  a  ton,  or  fifty  cents 
per  hen,  which  brings  the  amount  of  her  earnings  to  $5.40,  and 
at  the  end  of  the  year  we  still  have  the  hen,1  to  eat  or  sell  at 
market  value,  about  75  cents  or  $1.00.  If  w(e  eat  her  we  have 
the  feathers,  which  are  easily  saved  and  can  be  sold  or  made 
into  pillows,  the  bones  pounded  up  and  fed  to  the  other  fowls. 

Poultry  pays  and  pays  better  than  any  other  legitimate 
business  considering  the  amount  invested.  Why  then  are  there 
any  failures?  I  will  tell  you  why.  The  failures  are  not  the 
i'ault  of  the  good  little  hen.  She  will  always  do  her  duty;  she 
will  always  respond  to  the  treatment  she  gets.  The  failures 
are  the  people  who  care  for  the  hen.  The  owners  are  the  fail- 
ures and  not  the  fowls. 

Success  is  what  we  all  want  to  attain  in  whatever  we  un- 
dertake and  "lest  we  forget"  some  of  the  things  which  lead  to 
success  may  I  repeat  that  there  are  three  essentials  to  egg  pro- 
duction. These  are — Comfort,  Exercise  and  Proper  Food.  I 
would  like  to  review  these. 


I  wrote  the  lady  that  both  of  these  articles  were  right. 
Let  us  see  if  we  can  prove  the  statement.  If  the  reader  has 
ever  had  any  experience  with  cattle,  he  knows  it  would  be 
sheer  folly  to  buy  a  herd  of  Polled  Augus  or  Herefords  for  a 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN.  15 

dairy  farm  for  they  have  been  bred  for  years  for  beef,  and  prac- 
tically everything  fed  to  them  goes  to  meat,  while  it  would 
be  just  as  foolish  to  buy  a  herd  of  Jersey  cows  and  expect  to 
make  a  living  from  them  raising  beef,  as  they  have  been  bred 
for  years  for  butter  fat  and  practically  everything  fed  to  them 
goes  to  milk  and  crean.  If  the  reader's  experience  has  been 
with  horses,  he  is  aware  that  a  man  engaged  in  teaming  would 
not  select  the  trotting  type  of  horse,  neither  would  a  turf- 
man put  his  money  on  an  1800-pound  Clyde'  horse  if  the  bal- 
ance of  the  field  were  trotting  horses.  That  would  not  be  horse 
sense.  Now  the  same  comparison  holds  good  in  the  poultry 
field,  except  with  this  difference,  that  the  egg  type  and  meat 
type  in  poultry  have  never,been  segregated  into  different  breeds 
and  each  breed  bred  for  a  number  of  years  along  the  line  it 
was  intended  for — the  egg  type  bred  for  eggs  alone,  and  all 
birds  inclined  to  meat  production  discarded,  both  male  and 
female,  and  the  meat  type  bred  for  meat,  without  regard  to 
eggs  except  enough  to  perpetuate  the  species,  just  as  the 
typical  butter  cattle  and  typical  beef  cattle  have  been  bred. 

I  have  seen  a  great  n^any  cases  like  the  first  mentioned 
article,  where  a  person  would  go  into  the  poultry  business, 
and  get  started  with  stock  that  was  of  the  meat  type,  and 
not  knowing  any  better,  would  think  that  all  poultry  was  the 
same  as  his,  and  the  only  way  any  money  could  be  made  in 
the  business  was  to  sell  fancy  birds  and  eggs  at  fancy  prices.. 
Now  these  people  are  not  to  blame  for  what  they  do  not  know. 
They  think  their  hens  are  as  good  layers  as  any  other  hens, 
and  they  have  no  way  of  knowing  any  better. 

I  have  also  seen  a  great  many  cases  like  Mrs.  Basley 
writes  of,  except  the  profits  were  not  so  large,  owing  to  dif- 
ferent environment  I  suppose.  These  people  had  the  same 
breed  of  hens  as  the  parties  before  mentioned,  but  they  were 
fortunate  in  getting  the  egg  type,  and  they  made  money  with 
their  hens.  Each  one  thinks  every  other  person's  hens  are 
the  same  as  theirs  if  they  are  the  same  breed,  and  that  is  the 
reason  there  are  so  many  different  conflicting  statements  in 
the  poultry  papers,  and  not  because  the  writers  are  not  intel- 
ligent or  not  truthful  as  some  suppose.  From  a  scientific 
point  of  view,  and  apart  from  the  fancy,  and  as  far  as  the 
knowledge  of  meat  and  egg  production  is  concerned,  the  poul- 
try business  is  in  its  infancy,  and  the  people  who  write  for  the 


16  THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN- 

poultry  papers  give  their  experience  for  your  benefit.     That's 
all. 

To  further  impress  on  your  mind  the  difference  between 
poultry  and  other  stock,  I  would  say  that  while  some  in- 
dividual cattle  of  the  various  beef  breeds  will  not  be  a  paying 
proposition,  the  only  safe  plan  is  to  select  your  feeders  from 
the  beef  family,  and  as  some  Jersey  cows  will  not  pay  as  but- 
ter producers,  still,  as  a  breed,  they  are  among  the  best  for 
that  purpose.  As  some  trotting  horses  do  not  make  good,  as 
a  rule  they  will  carry  you  over  the  road  in  good  time,  and  as 
some  draft  type  teams  are  not  sure  pullers,  they  are  a  success 
as  a  class. 

The.  same  general  laws  apply  to  all  animal  nature.  The 
hen  is  no  exception,  only  in  this  respect, — that  while  cattle 
and  horses  have  been  bred  so  that  as  a  rule  novices  can  select 
the  type  they  wish  by  selecting'  the  breed,  hens  have  not  been 
bred  that  way.  We  have  what  purports  to  be  egg  breeds  and 
•dual  purpose  breeds.  The  first  are  supposed  to  be  a  paying 
proposition  as  a  whole  for  egg  production.  The  latter  are 
supposed  to  be  a  paying  proposition  for  both  eggs  and  meat 
combined,  some  breeders  claiming  that  their  breed  will  give 
you  the  very  largest  number  of  eggs  per  year,  and  the  greatest 
weigh. t  of  flesh  all  in  one  bird.  Now  these  claims  are  mis- 
leading. It  is  an  utter  physical  impossibility  for  any  hen  to 
be  a  t\  pical  egg  type  and  at  the  same  time  be  a  typical  meat 
type.  It  is  against  the  laws  of  nature.  We  have  the  Leg- 
horns, Mmorcas,  Spanish,  and  a  number  of  other  Mediter- 
ranean breds  that  are  called  egg  type.  While  the  truth  is 
that  while  they  have  been  bred  as  best  the  breeders  knew 
how  along  the  lines  of  egg  production,  you  can  find  vast 
numbers  that  will  not  lay  eggs  enough  to  pay  for  the  feed 
they  eat.  Great  numbers  in  some  flocks  have  all  the  char- 
acteristics of  the  beef  type  and  will  lay  about  three  or  four 
dozen  eggs  per  year  and  some  times  not  over  a  dozen.  The 
Plymouth  Rock,  Orpington,  Wryandotte  and  Langshans  are 
classed  as  dual  purpose  breeds.  That  means  hens  that  will 
lay  a  medium  number  of  eggs  and  give  a  good  large  carcass 
for  the  table,  and  while  this  is  true  in  a  majority  of  cases, 
1  have  seen  numerous  specimens  that  laid  over  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  eggs  per  year,  while  some  would  lay  little 
or  nothing.  In  fact,  while  I  have  bred  Leghorns  for  more 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN  17 

than  forty  years  and  they  are  my  favorite  breed,  I  must  say 
I  have  found  as  good  layers  (within  a  few  eggs)  in  all  the 
other  breeds  I  have  named  as  I  have  found  in  the  Leg- 
horns and  I  have  also  found  as  poo*-  layers  among  the  Leg- 
horns as  I  have  found  in  any  other  breed.  As  far  as  the 
number  of  eggs  are  concerned,  as  a  rule  I  find  that  the 
breed  of  the  hen  has  nothing  to  do  w»*h  it  wlVatever. 

I  do  not  wish  to  be  considered  dogmatic  in  anything 
I  may  say  in  this  work.  I  am  merely  giving  the  opinions  I 
have  formed  by  observation  and  experiment  during  a  period 
of  fifty-six  years  that  I  have  kept  poultry,  not  to  make  all  the 
money  I  could  out  of  them  but  to  learn  all  I  possibly  could 
about  them.  In  fact,  until  a  few  years  ago  I  never  kept  poultry 
for  the  money  there  was  in  it.  The  keeping  of  hens  has  been  a 
passion  with  me.  I  have  spent  years  of  time  and  thousands  of 
dollars,  but  I  think  I  have  found  something  that  will  be  of  in- 
estimable value  to  the  world  And  I  have  found  it  not  because  I 
was  any  better  fitted  for  tne  work  than  thousands  of  other 
lovers  of  poultry  but  because  I  stuck  everlastingly  to  it  without 
any  regard  as  to  whether  it  paid  me  in  dollars  or  not. 

As  previously  stated,  it  is  not  a  matter  of  breed  as  to 
whether  a  hen  is  a  good  layer  or  not.  It  is  a  matter  of  type, 
capacity  and  constitutional  vigor.  First,  in  almost  all  breeds 
there  is  a  type  of  hen  where  everything  she  consumes  over 
bodily  maintenance  goes  to  the  production  of  eggs.  This 
we  call  the  typical  egg  type.  Second,  there  is  a  type  where 
about  half  the  food  consumed  over  maintenance  goes  to  the 
production  of  eggs,  the  balance  over  bodily  maintenance, 
going  to  make  flesh.  This  is  called  the  dual  purpose,  type, 
as  this  hen  performs  two  functions  that  are  considered  neces- 
sary in  the  economy  of  nature,  the  production  of  eggs  and  the 
production  of  meat  on  a  commercial  scale.  Third,  there  is  a 
type  where  everything  consumed  over  bodily  maintenance 
goes  to  flesh.  This  hen  we  call  the  meat  type  for  the  reason 
that  practically  all  her  energy  is  used  in  producing  meat. 

Now  here  we  have  three  distinct  types  of  fowl  in  almost 
every  breed.  We  have  divided  these  three  types  into  six 
separate  classes  for  each  type : 


18  THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 

No.  1  of  the  typical  egg  type  hen  may  lay  about  36  eggs. 

No.  2  may  lay  about  96  eggs. 

No.  3  may  lay  about  180  eggs. 

No.  4  may  lay  about  220  eggs. 

No.  5  may  lay  about  250  eggs. 

No.  6  may  lay  about  280  eggs. 

All  this  is  in  their  first  laying  year. 

No.  1  of  the  dual  purpose  type  hen  may  Uy  aoout  20  eggs. 

No  2  may  lay  about  50  eggs. 

No.  3  may  lay  about  96  eggs. 

No.  4  may  lay  about  115  eggs. 

No.  5  may  lay  about  130  eggs. 

No.  6  may  lay  about  145  eggs. 

The  first  laying  year. 

No  1  of  the  typical  meat  type  may  lay  from  nothing  to 
a  dozen  eggs.  No  2,  3  4,  5  and  6  may  lay  from  nothing  to  a 
couple  of  dozen  eggs,  and  as  a  rule  will  lay  these  in  the  spring 
when  the  crows  lay.  The  reason  is  very  plain  if  we  stop  to 
think  that  the  same  natural  laws  govern  all  animal  (and 
human)  nature. 

The  egg  type  nen  is  of  a  nervous  temperament.  (That 
is  why  she  is  usally  free  from  body  lice  if  she  has  a  suitable 
place  to  dust  in),  and  all  she  eats  over  bodily  maintenance 
goes  to  the  production  of  eggs.  The  hen  of  the  sangunine 
temperament  is  a  little  more  beefy  and  lays  less  eggs.  The 
hen  of  the  bilious  temperament  is  more  beefy  still  and  lays 
still  less  eggs,  while  the  hen  of  the  lymphatic  temperament 
will  lay  little  or  nothing,  almost  everything  she  eats  going  to 
flesh  and  fat.  (The  reader  need  borrow  no  trouble  over  the 
meaning  of  the  terms,  nervous,  sanguine,  billious  and  lym- 
phatic temperaments  if  he  is  not  familiar  with  them,  as  the 
charts  1,  2,  3,  4,  5  and  6  will  specify  matters  so  that  anyone  can 
understand  the  matter  of  selecting  the  different  grades  of 
hens  with  very  little  study  and  trouble.) 

We  have  said  that  we  have  divided  the  three  gracies,  the 
egg  type,  dual  purpose  type,  and  meat  type,  into  six  separate 
classes.  There  is,  in  fact,  a  seventh  class,  but  it  is  so  rare  that 
we  will  not  take  it  into  consideration  here,  but  will  explain 
it  later.  But  we  have,  in  fact,  made  90  classes  of  these  six 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN.  19 

for  convenience  in  selection  and     the     process     could    be     ex- 
tended indefinitely  but  it  would  serve  no  needful  purpose. 

Now  when  we  consider  all  these  different  grades  in  the 
hens  of  every  breed,  and  the  further  fact  that  there  is  the  same 
number  of  different  grades  in  the  male  bird,  is  it  any  wonder 
that  there  is  so  much  difference  of  opinion  in  regard  to  the 
profits  derived  from  poultry  keeping?  We  have  visited  hun- 
dreds of  poultry  plants  that  numbered  from  about  fifty  to 
two  thousand  or  more  hens  e'ach.  We  have  seen  some  flocks 
of  five  hundred  that  would  not  pay  for  the  feed  they  consumed 
for  the  simple  reason  that  they  were  not  the  right  type  of 
hens.  They  were  fine  looking  healthy  meat  producers,  but 
there  was  no  earthly  way  possible  to  feed  them  that  would 
induce  them  to  lay  eggs  at  any  time  except  a  few  months 
in  the  spring  when  the  crows  laid  and  eggs  were  cheap.  The 
owners  of  some  of  these  flocks  were  bright,  brainy,  vigorous 
business  men  who  tried  every  method  that  usage  and  science 
suggested  and  fought  with  sheer  desperation  to  make  a  suc- 
cess of  the  business,  but  went  down  in  failure ;  while  their  next 
neighbor,  a  little  pin-headed,  conceited  speciman  of  humanity, 
strutting  around  like  a  peacock,  was  getting  rich  with  the  same 
breed  of  hens..  Luck,  do  you  say?  Yes  it  is  mostly  a  matter 
of  chance.  The  first  man  was  unfortunate  in  that  he  got  his 
eggs  or  breeding  pens  from  stock  such  as  that  described  in 
the  first  article  of  the  "Fanciers  Monthly,"  while  the  last 
man  got  his  eggs  or  breeding  pens  from  stock  described  by 
Mrs.  Basley  in  the  second  article. 

WTe  once  visited  a  gentlman  who  had  a  very  extensive 
poultry  plant.  He  had  a  large  number  of  different  breeds 
yarded  off  in  finely  appointed  yards  with  help  and  financial 
means  to  satisfy  every  need  of  a  poultry  plant.  His  pens  of 
Rocks,  Orpingtons  and  Langshans  were  remarkable  layers, 
while  his  Cochins,  Houdans  and  Polish  were  very  good  lay- 
ers. After  looking  over  the  last  named  birds  he  remarked, 
"I  have  500  Leghorn  hens  which  are  18  months  old  which  I 
wish  you  would  look  at."  After  we  had  looked  at  them  a  few 
minutes  he  said,  "What  do  you  think  of  them  as  layers?"  I 
replied  that  if  he  would  tell  me  which  pen  laid  an  average  of 
all  the  pens,  I  would  tell  him  in  a  few  minutes.  "That  pen 
there,"  said  he,  pointing  to  No.  20,  "has  laid  an  average  num- 
ber of  all  the  eggs  laid."  I  looked  it  up  only  last  night.  After 


20  THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 

examining  the  hens  I  told  him  I  would  not  take  them  as  a 
gift  if  I  had  to  keep  them  one  year.  "Why,"  he  asked.  "Be- 
cause," I  relied,  "after  keeping  them  a  year  and  selling  them, 
the  price  I  would  receive  for  the  hens  >and  the  eggs  they 
would  lay,  would  not  pay  for  their  feed.  I  cannot  see  why 
you  keep  them."  The  next  evening  he  said  to  me,  "Do  you  see 
that  man  moving  into  the  place  over  yonder.  Well,  I  have 
sold  those  Leghorn  hens  to  that  newcomer  for  $500."  "Is 
this  an  exceptional  case"  you  ask.  I  have  only  this  to  say; 
that  all  the  David  Harums  are  not  in  the  horse  business, 
neither  can  I  see  why  a  poultry  man  should  be  his  brother's 
keeper  when  it  is  not  the  rule  in  other  lines  of  business.  It 
seems  to  me  the  better  way  is  to  study  poultry  from  a  scien- 
tific point  of  view,  so  that  you  can  judge  the  value  of  a  hen 
for  the  purpose  you  want  her  for,  and  not  have  to  depend  on 
other  peoples'  opinions. 

By  studyng  this  book  carefully  you  will  be  able  to  tell 
approximately  the  number  of  eggs  a  hen  is  capable  of  laying 
in  a  year;  you  can  also  select  the  hens  that  will  be  the  best 
lor  breeding  purposes,  for  eggs,  for  meat,  or  as  a  dual  purpose 
hen,  that  is,  a  hen  that  will  give  you  the  largest  number  of 
eggs  possible,  with  the  largest  possible  amount  of  meat  when 
you  wiish  to  sell  her,  or  the  hen  that  will  produce  the 
best  broilers,  regardless  of  any  one  particular  breed.  Some 
hens  will  be  very  good  layers,  some  very  good  meat  pro- 
ducers, some  very  good  dual  purpose  type  and  some  very 
fine  fancy  birds,  and  you  can  mate  them  with  the  same  type 
of  male  bird  and  breed  from  these  birds  for  a  few  genera- 
tions, and  their  progeny  will  degenerate.  The  chickens  from 
the  hens  and  cockerells  or  cock  birds  of  the  200-egg  type  may 
lay  less  each  generation  until  in  eight  or  ten  generations  they 
may  not  lay  enough  to  pay  for  their  feed.  The  progeny 
from  some  of  the  best  meat  and  dual  purpose  type  matings, 
will  some  times  degenerate  just  as  the  egg  type,  until  they 
are  practically  worthless  as  profitable  meat  producers.  The 
chicks  from  the  fancy  mating  may  be  a  failure  from  the  fan- 
cier's point  of  view.  This  is  the  rock  that  some  old  poul- 
try breeders  are  sometimes  wrecked  upon.  One  case  of  na- 
tional interest  was  the  case  of  the  late  lamented  Prof.  Gowell. 
of  the  State  of  Maine  Experiment  Station.  He  had  started 
some  years  before  to  breed  up  a  heavy  laying  strain  by  using 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN.  21 

the  trap  nest,  selecting  eggs  for  hatching  from  hens  that 
were  his  best  layers,  and  conformed  as  near  as  possible  to 
the  standard,  and  using  cockerels  hatched  from  these  eggs 
to  mate  with  his  hens.  Now  this  was  all  right  as  far  as  it  went, 
but  there  was  something  that  the  professor  had  not  taken 
into  consideration.  He  had  procured  the  best  birds  he  could 
rind,  had  trap  nested  them  to  discover  the  hens  that  were 
the  most  prolific  layers,  had  selected  the  eggs  from  what 
he  had  considered  to  be  the  best  hens  for  the  purpose  (and 
few  men  had  better  judgment  in  this  respect.)  He  had  mated 
up  the  best  looking  cockerels  from  these  best  eggs  from  the 
best  laying  hens,  and  according  to  (all  apparent  precedents 
was  he  not  justified  in  expecting  an  increase  each  year  in 
egg  production?  But  what  were  the  results?  If  reports  are 
true,  there  was  a  decrease  in  egg  production,  and  what  do 
you  suppose  was  the  cause?  There  must  be  some  cause.  There 
is  a  cause  for  every  effect.  Sometimes  we  think  things  just 
happen,  that  there  is  no  natural  law  that  governs  them ;  that 
in  this  or  that  case  it  was  all  chance;  that  it  may  not  have 
happened  to  another  person,  and  will  not  be  likely  to  happen 
to  us  again,  and  so  we  dismiss  the  matter  only  to  have  the 
same  thing  repeat  itself,  until  we  either  solve  the  problem 
or  meet  our  doom  through  it.  And  thereby  hangs  a  tale. 

Some  time  in  the  summer  of  1905  I  received  a  letter 
from  a  doctor  in  one  of  the  suburbs  of  Boston,  asking  me 
what  I  would  charge  to  visit  Orono,  Maine,  and  have  a  talk 
with  Prof.  Gowell,  and  incidentally  to  drop  a  few  remarks 
that  might  be  of  some  help  to  him  in  his  investigations.  I 
had  never  met  the  Professor,  but  I  replied  to  the  Doctor  that 
I  would  go.  (I  was  then  living  in  Minnesota.)  And  would 
pay  my  own  expenses  as  I  wished  to  visit  Boston,  my  birth- 
place and  where  I  first  started1  in  poultry  keeping  in  1857, 
and  it  would  be  a  small  matter  to  go  from  there  to  Orono 
Maine,  where  Prof.  Gowell  was  conducting  his  experiments. 
While  I  was  waiting  for  a  reply,  I  decided  that  as  Prof 
Gowell  had  put  so  much  time  and  thought  into  the  trap 
nest  proposition  and  had  built  so  much  on  that  one  thing, 
and  that  as  he  could  get  results  from  it  (only  it  was  a  waste  of 
time),  that  in  this  first  visit  to  him  I  would  offer  only  one 
suggestion,  and  that  was  the  secret  of  selecting  the  birds, 
both  male  and  female,  that  would  be  sure  to  breed  progeny 


22  THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 

that  would  be  better  than  their  parents  along  the  lines  in 
which  the  parents  excelled,  or  in  other  words,  transmit  their 
predominating  characteristics  to  their  offspring.  That  is,  if  the 
cockerel  or  cock  bird  and  hens  were  typical  meat  type  birds, 
the  progeny  would  excel  along  these  lines.  Some  of  them 
would  excel  their  parents  in  the  production  of  meat ;  they 
would  be  hardier,  better  feeders,  would  digest  and  assimilate 
their  food  better,  and  consequently  arrive  at  maturity  sooner, 
and  be  of  better  flavor  and  more  tender,  and  by  breeding 
these  birds  along  the  lines  laid  down  by  I.  K.  Felch,  of  Natick, 
Mass.,  (line  breeding  he  calls  it),  they  would  improve  each 
season  so  that  in  a  number  of  years,  there  would  be  a  great 
difference  in  their  favor  over  their  parents.  If  the  pen  was  a 
fancy  proposition  and  had  been  bred  some  years  for  fancy 
points,  the  progeny  wrould  show  a  decided  improvement  in  a 
few  years  over  their  parents.  If  the  pen  were  the  typical 
egg  type,  the  progeny  would  show  an  increase  over  their 
parents  in  stamina  and  egg  production.  I  would  also  have 
shown  him  where  the  birds  he  was  breeding  from  were  de- 
ficient in  the  faculty  that  governs  fecundity,  or  in  other  words, 
which  controls  the  function  of  reproduction. 

Whittier  in  "Maud  Muller"  says, — "  For  of  all  sad  words 
of  tongue  or  pen,  the  saddest  are  these, — It  might  have  been.'"' 
Yes,  it  might  have  been.  Prof.  Gowell  might  have  lived  to 
give  many  more  years  of  aid  to  the  poultry  world  and  his 
tragic  death  been  prevented,  but  he  wrote  the  doctor  that  ht 
did  not  want  me  to  come.  He  seemed  determined  to  solve 
the  problem  himself  and  no  doubt  \vould  have  done  so  if  he 
had  been  as  care  free  from  routine  duties  as  a  man  in  his  posi- 
tion should  have  been,  and  I  charge  his  untimely  end  to 
society.  The  men  and  women  in  our  public  institutions  who 
are  giving  their  lives  for  the  benefit  of  humanity  are  not  ap- 
preciated 'at  their  true  value.  We  demand  the  full  limit  of 
routine  duties,  forgetting  that  it  is  impossible  for  a  tired 
body  to  lurnish  sufficient  nutriment  to  the  brain  to  solve  these 
intricate  pioblems  that  are  continually  confronting  them,  and 
while  we  cause  them  to  suffer  mentally  and  physically  individ- 
ually, we  cause  ourselves  to  suffer  collectively  by  our  parsim- 
onious treatment  of  them. 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN.  23 

CHAPTER   II. 

The  writer  is  not  one  of  the  long  winded  kind.  I  don't 
like  to  talk  a  long  time  in  order  to  say  a  few  words,  or  write 
a  dozen  pages,  where  one  will  do  as  well.  I  believe  in  hand- 
ing out  the  chunks  of  gold  with  as  little  dross  as  possible. 
I  think  the  reader  would  rather  receive  the  information  I 
have  to  offer,  in  one  page,  than  in  a  dozen;  that  he  would 
rather  discover  the  facts  in  a  few  feet  than  to  be  obliged  to 
hunt  over  a  hundred  acres  of  literary  space  for  the  same  in- 
formation.  For  that  reason  I  will  make  this  work  as  brief  as  pos- 
sible. I  will  be  aided  in  my  effort  to  do  so  by  the  fact  that 
the  theories  offered  in  this  work  have  been  more  or  less  dem- 
onstrated by  the  "Govermental  Experimental  Stations  of  New 
Zealand,  and  the  States  of  Minnesota  and  California;  also  in 
the  Poultry  Plants  of  the  five  state  hospitals  (which  contains 
thousands  of  hens)  in,  the  State  of  California,  under  the 
auspices  of  the  State  Board  of  Health,  and  the  Physicians 
of  the  different  hospitals.  It  might  not  be  a  difficult  matter 
to  mislead  a  few  poultrymen  on  a  subject  that  deals  wholly 
with  Physiology  and  Anatomy,  but  it  would  be  absurd  to 
think  for  a  moment  that  one  could  deceive  all  of  the  phy- 
sicians in  five  state  insane  hospitals.  It  seems  a  man  who 
would  still  doubt,  would  believe  the  world  was  flat,  especially 
when  he  learns  that  a  member  of  the  State  Board  of  Health, 
told  the  writer  that  there  was  a  difference  of  fifteen  hundred 
dollars  in  favor  of  using  the  system,  in  one  year,  in  one  of 
the  hospitals  alone. 

We  commence  in  this  chapter  the  unfolding  of  a  method 
or  test  by  which  the  reader  can  tell  approximately  the 
value  of  a  hen  and  a  male  bird  as  a  breeding  proposition 
(and  in  the  chapter  on  breeding  alone,  this  book  will  be  worth 
it's  weight  in  gold,  to  the  fanciers)  an  egg  producer,  or  a  meat 
producer.  It  is  my  desire  to  make  the  facts  contained  in 
this  book,  so  clear,  and  the  tests  so  easy  of  application,  that 
any  one  can  become  proficient  in  the  use  of  them  in  a  short 
time.  Therefore,  I  have  prepared  a  series  of  illustrations, 
showing  numerous  types  and  conditions  of  fowls,  also  var- 
ious other  facts  that  may  better  be  shown  by  pictures,  than 
by  explanations  alone. 


24  THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 

You  will  remember  no  doubt  that  you  did  not  arrive  at 
your  present  proficiency  in  reading  in  a  day  or  two ;  that  it 
took  some  little  time,  and  there  was  a  certain  system  or 
evolution  in  your  study.  You  will  find  the  same  true  of  this 
method.  There  is  a  certain  process  that  leads  from  one  step 
to  another,  until  you  have  covered  the  system,  when  by  re- 
peated study  and  practice  you  will  become  proficient  and 
accomplish  what  at  first  seems  impossible.  It  may  seem  an 
impossible  task  to  handle  and  grade  sixteen  hundred  hens  in 
six  hours,  but  the  writer  has  done  it.  With  sufficient  help 
to  hand  me  the  hens,  we  graded  or  in  other  words  tested 
out  sixteen  hundred  hens  in  six  hours  in  the  State  Hospital 
Poultry  yards  at  Ukiah,  Mendocino  county,  California,  March 
1910.  Not  so  bad  for  a  semi-invalid  of  62,  we  hear  you  say. 
Our  reply  is,  it's  practice.  You  can  do  the  same.  Go  through 
the  movements  with  every  hen  you  pick  up  each  day,  and  in 
a  short  time,  what  at  first  is  difficult  will  appear  quite  easy. 

For  some  years  previous  to  1912  there  was  great  ac- 
tivity in  the  poultry  industry,  there  having  been  no  lack  of 
poultry  papers,  farm  papers  and  magazines,  that  for  a  nom- 
inal sum  would  give  tuition  in  poultry  culture.  The  ease  of 
getting  a  theoretical  knowledge  of  the  business,  induced 
thousands  to  take  it  up  who  otherwise  would  not  think  of 
doing  so.  The  apparent  ease  of  conducting  the  business,  the 
small  amount  of  capital  it  was  supposed  to  require  with  the 
large  and  steady  income  it  offered  were  the  will-o-th'-wisps 
that  lured  the  many  to  financial  loss.  I  would  warn  my 
readers  against  rushing  into  the  poultry  business  on  a  scale 
beyond  their  means  without  first  obtaining  a  working  knowl- 
edge of  the  same.  With  good  stock,  with  the  proper  en- 
vironment, a  good  market  and  a  working  knowledge  of  the 
business,  there  is  little  danger  of  failure  if  one  is  willing  to 
do  the  work  necessary  on  a  poultry  plant.  It  offers  the  most 
independent  living  for  the  smallest  amount  of  capital  of  any 
business  I  know  of. 

The  requisites  for  success  are  the  knowledge  to  know 
how  to  be  able  to  select  the  hen  you  need  for  any  particular 
purpose,  whether  it  is  for  eggs  or  for  meat  or  fancy.  W'hether 
the  hen  will  be  a  paying  proposition  or  not  (this  may  depend 
on  your  market)  whether  she  will  be  able  to  transmit  her 
predominating  characteristics  to  her  offspring  or  not.  Also 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN.  25 

you  must  be  able  to  judge  accurately  the  value  of  the  male 
bird  as  to  what  you  want  him  for,  and,  as  to  his  ability  to 
stamp  his  offspring  with  the  desired  qualities.  All  the  above 
you  can  learn  from  this  book.  You  should  also  know  how 
to  operate  incubators,  how  to  feed  and  care  for  little  chicks, 
how  your  hen  houses  should  be  built  to  suit  your  climate,  how 
your  growing  pullets  should  be  fed  and  housed,  and  the  best 
way  to  feed  to  get  the  most  eggs  at  the  smallest  cost,  and 
how  to  feed  and  mate  to  get  fertile  eggs  and  vigorous  chicks. 
There  are  numerous  books  published  on  all  of  these  latter 
subjects  that  you  can  buy  from  the  publishers  of  any  poultry 
paper.  So  we  do  not  take  up  the  matter  in  this  work,  we 
give  only  what  you  cannot  get  anywhere  else. 

Following  is  a  series  of  half-tones  and  explanations  re- 
presenting the  method  we  have  used  in  instructing  hundreds 
of  poultrymen  and  women  in  California  and  other  states, 
and  the  managers  of  poultry  plants  in  a  number  of  State 
institutions  in  the  State  of  California. 


CHAPTER  III. 

There  are  four  characteristics  that  it  is  absolutely  nec- 
essary for  a  hen  to  possess,  for  the  economical  production  ol 
eggs  or  meat.  The  first  is  capacity,  the  second  is  condition, 
the  third  is  type  and  the  fourth  is  constitutional  vigor. 
The  reader  must  bear  the  first  three  in  mind  in 
studying  the  next  few  chapters,  as  we  will  dispose  of  these 
before  taking  other  matters  into  consideration.  First,  what  is 
capacity?  Capacity  means  the  abdominal  capacity  to  consume 
and  assimilate  the  amount  of  food  necessary  to  produce  the 
number  of  eggs  or  the  amount  of  meat  necessary  to  make  the 
individual  hen  under  consideration  a  paying  proposition. 
Second,  Condition.  If  the  hen  under  consideration  is  an  egg 
type,  she  must  be  kept  in  proper  bodily  condition  by  supplying 
her  with  the  right  quantity  and  quality  of  food  that  will  fur- 
nish her  with  vitality  to  produce  the  number  of  eggs  required 
of  her.  Third,  Type. .  She  must  be  of  a  type  that  everything 
she  consumes  is  used  in  producing  the  desired  effect,  whether 
it  is  meat,  whether  it  is  eggs,  or  whether  it  is  the  maximum 
amount  of  eggs  and  meat  that  a  dual  purpose  hen  can  produce. 
With  the  reader  bearing  the  above  three  propositions  in  mind. 


26 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 


namely,  Capacity,  Condition  and  Type,  we  will  proceed  to 
show  how  to  judge  the  hen  with  the  least  amount  of  time  and 
labor. 


Figure    I. — Showing    Hens    in    House. 

Figure  1  shows  the  interior  of  an  open  front  colony  house, 
largely  used  around  Petaluma.  The  roosts  are  connected  to 
the  house  by  hinges  so  they  can  be  hooked  up  out  of  the  way 
while  cleaning  the  house  or  examining  the  hens  as  in  the 
present  case.  These  houses  are  usually  about  8  feet  wide  and 
10  feet  deep  inside,  with  4  feet  posts  and  pitch  roof.  These 
houses  are  open  front  with  the  exception  of  18  inches  on  each 
side,  as  can  be  seen  on  one  side,  wlhere  hens  are  going  out  of 
house  into  catching  coop.  When  hens  move  too  slow  to  suit, 
one  or  more  persons  (children  will  do)  can  take  grain  sack  by 
bottom  side  in  one  hand  and  top  side  in  the  other  hand  and  go 
into  house  holding  sacks  spread  apart  and  moving  gently  close 
to  floor  or  ground  and  drive  the  hens  into  the  catching  coop. 
When  coop  is  full  shut  down  slide  door  on  outside  to  prevent 
hens  returning  to  house. 

Some  readers  may  have  long  houses,  holding  five  hundred 
hens  or  more.  In.  this  case  you  will  need  a  panel,  run  diagonal- 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN.  27 

ly  across  the  house,  to  a  point  near  the  opening,  where  the 
hens  go  in  and  out  of  the  house,  as  in  Fig.  1  1-2.  This  panel 
can  be  as  long  as  required  for  the  width  of  the  house  and  made 
in  sections  if  desired  and  should  be  six  feet  or  more  high. 


Figure   ll/2. — Showing  Two   Inch   Wire  Panel    Placed     Diagonally     Across 
House  Holding  2,000  Hens. 


Figure  2. — Showing  Hens  in  Catching  Crate. 


28 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 


Figure  2.  Shows  hens  in  the  coop,  when  there  is     enough 
in  we  shut  clown  the  slide  door  and  proceed  as  in  Fig.  3. 


Figure  3. — Showing  How  Hens  Are  Taken  Out  of  Catching  Crate. 

Fig.  3.  Note  the  slide  door  on  top  of  the  crate,  we  open 
this  just  enough  to  admit  our  arm  while  we  grasp  the  hen  firm- 
ly by  both  legs,  so  she  can't  twist  around  and  injure  herself. 
A  slide  door  is  better  than  a  hinged  door  as  you  can  open  the 
former  just  enough  to  take  out  the  hen  without  so  much  dan- 
ger of  any  of  the  other  hens  escaping. 

Fig.  4.  Note,  how  the  right  arm  is  held  in  Fig.  4,  this  is 
not  the  right  way  but  it  is  the  wjay  most  persons  hold  the  left 
arm  when  they  recive  their  first  lesson.  Now  note  how  the 
left  arm  is  held,  this  is  the  right  position  and  it  is  difficult  for 
me  to  teach  students  to  hold  their  arms  this  way.  I  have  to 
drill  them  repeatedly  before  they  will  do  so. 

Fig.  5.  Shows  how  the  writer  holds  a  bird  to  ascertain 
its  capacity  by  holding  it  this  wray.  After  long  practice  he 
is  enabled  to  inspect  one  in  a  few  seconds  by  having  three 
parties  to  hand  him  the  birds  and  to  take  them  from  him.  A 
small  light  hen  or  pullet  is  best  to  practice  with. 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN 


29 


Figure   4. — Showing  Right  and  Wrong  Way  to  Hold  Arms. 


Figure  5. — Showing  How  a  Hen  may  be  Held  while  Testing  Capacity. 


30 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 


Figure  6. — Showing  Where  the  Hen's  Head  Should  Be     So 

See  Anything. 


She     Cannot 


Fig.  6.  Shows  where  the  head  of  the  bird  should  be.  You 
will  note  that  her  eyes  are  covered  up  so  she  can't  see  and  that 
has  a  tendency  to  keep  her  quiet  while  you  examine  her. 

Fig.  7.  Gives  an  example  of  testing  the  capacity  of  a 
hen.  The  hand  is  placed  on  the  abdomen  between  the  two 
pelvic  bones  and  the  rear  of  the  breast  bone,  the  left  hand 
holding  the  legs  is  turned  under  enough  to  bring  the  thighs 
away  from  the  point  of  the  breast  bone  so  that  the  thighs  will 
not  interfere  with  measuring  the  depth  of  the  abdomen.  The 
depth  of  the  abdomen  will  v*ary  with  different  hens.  Some  will 
be  one  finger  (a  finger  means  the  width  of  a  finger  the  widest 
way.  I  have  called  it  three-fourth  of  an  inch)  between  the 
two  pelvic  bones,  (sometimes  called  lay  bones  or  vent  bones) 
and  the  rear  of  the  breast  bone.  Some  hens  will  be  two  fingers 
between  the  two  pelvic  bones  and  the  rear  of  the  bre/ast  bone. 
Some  will  be  three  fingers.  Some  hens  will  be  four  fingers. 
Some  will  be  five  fingers,  some  will  be  six  fingers,  and  occas- 
ionally one  will  be  seven  fingers  between  the  two  pelvic  bones 
and  the  rear  of  the  breast  bone.  The  depth  of  the  abdomen 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 


31 


indicates  the  capacity  or  the  ability  of  the  bird  to  consume  and 
assimilate  food  and  it  applies  to  all  breeds,  except  that  every- 
thing else  being  equal  the  longer  bodied  hen  having  more 


Figure  7. — Showing  How  to  Test  Capacity. 

room  for  the  digestive  machinery,  would  have  some  advantage 
over  the  shorter  bodied  hen. 

Fig.  8.  This  indicates  how  to  hold  a  hen  when  you 
examine  her  for  condition.  This  is  one  of  the  most  difficult 
and  serious  problems  a  poultryman  has  to  deal  with.  To  illus- 
trate, I  will  cite  one  case  out  of  hundreds  that  have  come  under 
my  observation.  A  gentleman  wrote  me  to  call  on  him  as  he 
was  having  trouble  with  his  hens.  When  I  arrived  at  his  place 
he  told  me  when  he  fed  his  hens  well,  he  got  lots  of  eggs,  but 
some  of  his  hens  died.  Then  when  he  did  not  feed  them  so 
well  they  did  not  lay  so  many  eggs,  but  none  of  them  died.  He 
said  he  had  repeated  this  a  number  of  times  with  the  a,ame 
results.  He  said  the  ones  that  died  wer^  ^s  fat  as  butter.  I 
picked  up  one  of  the  hens.  She  was  in  prime  condition  for  the 
market.  I.  picked  up  another  one,  she  was  very  thin.  I  ex- 
amined all  his  hens.  I  found  he  had,  like  a  great  m/iny  poultry- 
men,  three  distinct  types  of  hens,  the  egg  type,  the  dual  pur- 


32 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 


pose  type,  and  the  meat  type.  As  he  had  fancy  birds  in  all  the 
different  types  he  did  not  want  to  dispose  of  any  of  his  flock,  so 
I  segregated  them  into  three  divisions,  the  egg  type,  the  dual 
purpose  type,  and  the  meat  type.  After  that  he  fed  the  egg 
'ype  ail  the  grain  they  could  clean  up  in  the  scratching  shod, 
and  kept  a  balance  ration  of  dry  ground  feed  before  them  all 
•;he  time.  The  dual  purpose  hens  were  fed  all  the  grain  they 
could  clean  up  in  the  scratching  sheds  with  a  small  amount 
oi  dry  ground  feed  each  day.  The  meat  type  hens  were  fed 


Figure  8.— Showing  How  to  Test  Condition. 


a  smaller  amount  of  grain  in  the  scratching  shed,  with  a 
couple  of  feeds  each  week  of  dry  ground  mash,  just  enough  to 
keep  them  in  condition.  After  this  he  had  no  more  trouble 
with  his  hens  not  laying  in  the  proper  season,  and  dying  from 
being  too  fat.  He  would  occasionally  pick  up  hens  in 
the  different  pens  and  note  their  condition  and  feed  them  ac- 
cordingly. He  told  me  later  that  before  he  had  taken  the  les- 
sons he  Had  been  working  completely  in  the  dark,  but  now  he 
understood  the  matter  thoroughly  and  knew  what  to  do. 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 


33 


Figure  9. — Showing  One  Movement  That  Has  Proved  an  Aid  in  Testing  Type 


Figure     10.-— Showing     Another     Movement    that    has    Proved    an    Aid    in 

Testing     Type. 


34 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 


Fig.  9.  After  examining  the  hen  as  in  Fig.  8,  place  the 
hand  as  in  Fig.  9,  and  hold  right  hand  firmly  enough  ro  pre- 
vent her  from  slipping  down. 

Fig.  10,  then,  move  the  left  hand  down  as  in  Fig.  10,  and 
hold  left  hand  iirin  enough  to  keep  her  in  place  while  removing 
right  hand. 

TYPE 

Fig.  11.  Now  brush  feathers  away  from  vent  with  back 
of  hand  and  grasp  end  of  pelvic  bone  so  that  it  comes  flush 
with  outside  of  ringers  as  in  Fig  11.  This  indicates  the  Type 
of  the  bird.  Some  will  be  one-sixteenth  (1-16)  of  an  inch  thick 


Figure   11.— Shows   Method  of  Testing  Type. 

including  the  flank  as  held  between  the  thumb  and  fore-finger 
as  seen  in  Fig.  11  and  will  vary  all  the  way  up  to  one  ?and  a 
quarter  (  1  1-4)  inches,  including  bone,  gristle,  fat  and  flank  as 
seen  in  Fig.  31. 

The  reader  is  aware  by  this  time  that  we  are  in  the  chapter 
pertaining  to  Type,  the  last  of  the  three  classes  that  is  neces- 
sary to  divide  poultry  into  in  order  to  make  a  scientific  class- 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN.  35 

iiication  to  enable  one  to  arrive  at  the  approximate  value  of 
the  "Individual  Bird"  as  an  Egg  or  as  a  Meat  proposition, 
(and  without  any  regard  as  to  its  value  as  a  breeder  which 
will  be  shown  later).  I  wish  to  repeat  here  that  Type  is  con- 
trolled wholly  by  temperament.  We  must  select  the  tempera- 
ment or  combinations  of  temperaments  that  suit  our  purpose 
and  then  with  the  desired  capacity  and  by  scientific  feeding  so 
as  to  keep  the  subject  in  proper  condition,  poultry  culture  will 
become  more  of  a  science  with  the  majority  of  poultrymen 
than  it  is  at  present.  In  order  to  prepare  the  reader  for  what 
is  to  follow,  I  will  divide  poultry  into  three  distinct  classes,  as 
to  temperaments. 

First — the  hen  that  will  produce  the  largest  amount  of 
eggs  with  the  smallest  amount  of  meat  possible  for  her  capac- 
ity is  of  the  nervous  temperament.  The  hen  which  uses  one 
half  of  her  vitality  in  producing  eggs,  and  the  other  half  of  her 
vitality  in  producing  meat,  in  other  words,  the  dual  purpose 
hen,  is  a  combination  of  both  the  sanguine  and  bilious  temper- 
aments and  is  called  the  hen  with  the  sanguine-bilious-temper- 
ament. 

The  hen  who  produces  the  largest  amount  of  flesh  and 
the  smallest  amount  of  eggs,  consistent  with  her  capacity  is 
of  the  lymphatic  temperament.  In  a  fowl  all  the  different  tem- 
peraments and  their  different  degrees  of  combinations  are  indi- 
cated by  the  Pelvic  Bones.  In  the  horse  they  are  indicated 
largely  by  the  breed.  The  Arabian,  the  ideal  running  and  trot- 
ting horse  is  a  good  type  of  the  nervous  temperament.  The 
coach  horse,  of  the  sanguine-bilious  temperament,  and  the 
Clyde  is  *i  good  type  of  the  lymphatic  temperament. 

In  cattle  we  have  a  good  example  of  the  nervous  tempera- 
ment in  the  Jersey,  and  of  the  lymphatic  in  the  beef  family  of 
Durham,  also  Hereford  and  Polled  Angus ;  while  the  Holstein 
and  Ayrshire  cattle  are  good  types  of  the  sanguine-bilious 
combined.  I  have  made  this  deviation  so  I  could  offer  to  my 
poultry  friends  this  thought,  that  there  are  certain  laws  in 
nature  that  have  no  regard  for  our  theories  and  the  better  we 
understand  these  laws,  the  less  liable  we  are  to  make  mis- 
takes. 


36 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 


CHAPTER  IV. 
CAPACITY. 

In  the  preceding  chapters,  we  have  given  the  reader  an 
idea  of  the  method  we  use  in  judging  the  value  of  a  hen  for 
the  purpose  we  wTish  her  for.  In  the  succeeding  chapters,  we 
will  explain  the  method  in  detail.  First  we  will  take  up  capac- 
ity. 


Figure     12. — One     Finger     Abdomen.     (Capacity.) 
Fig.  12.     Shows  a  hen  with  only  one  finger  capacity,  (3  4 
of  an  inch)  between  the  two  Pelvic  Bones  and  the  rear  of  the 
Breast  Bone. 


Figure     13.— Two     Finger     Abdomen.     (Capacity.) 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 


37 


Fig.  13.     Shows  a  hen  two  fingers  capacity,  (1  1-2  inches) 
between  the  Two  Pelvic  Bones  and  rear  of  the  Breast  Bone. 


Figure    14.^Three    Finger    Abdomen.     (Capacity.) 

Fig.  14.  Shows  a  hen  with  three  fingers  capacity  (2  1-4 
inches)  between  the  two  Pelvic  Bones  and  the  rear  of  the 
Breast  Bone. 


Figure     15.— Four     Finger     Abdomen.      (Capacity.) 

Fig.  15.     Shows  a  hen  four  fingers  dapacity  (3  inches)  be- 
tween the  two  Pelvic  Bones  and  rear  of  Breast  Bone. 


38 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 


Figure     16. — Five     Finger  Abdomen.     (Capacity.) 

Fig.  16.  Shows  a  hen  with  five  fingers  capacity  (3  3-4 
inches)  between  the  two  Pelvic  Bones  and  the  rear  of  the 
Breast  Bone. 


Figure   17 — Six     Finger     Abdomen.      (Capacity.) 


Fig.  17.  Shows  a  hen  with  six  fingers  capacity  (4  1-2 
inches)  between  the  two  Pelvic  Bones  and  the  rear  of  the 
Breast  Bone. 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 


CHAPTER  V. 
CONDITION. 

We  Next  Come  To  Condition. 


Figure    IS. — Showing   Hen    in   Very    Poor   Condition. 
Fig.  18.     Shows  hen  in  very  poor  condition. 


Figure   19.— Showing   Hen   in   Good   Condition. 

Fig.  19.     Shows  a  hen  in  perfect  condition  as  indicated  by 
her  full  breast. 


40 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEX. 


Figure  20. — Showing  Hen  One  Finger  Out  of  Condition. 


Fig.  20.  Is  somewhat  thinner  as  indicated  by  breast  bone. 
We  call  her  one  finger  out  of  condition. 

The  degrees  of  condition  show  the  amount  of  shrinkage 
in  abdominal  depth.  One  finger  out  of  condition,  shows  she  has 
shrunken  one  finger  in  depth  of  abdomen.  Two  fingers  out  of 
condition  shows  she  has  shrunken  two  fingers  in  depth  of 
abdomen.  Three  fingers  out  of  condition  shows  she  has 
shrunken  three  fingers  in  depth  of  abdomen. 


Figure  21. — Showing  Hen  Two  Fingers  Out  of  Condition. 

Fig.  21,  is  still  thinner,  as  reader  can  see  by     the     breast 
bone.    We  call  her  two  fingers  out  of  condition. 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN 


Fig.  22,  is  still  thinner,  this  we  call  three  fingers  out  of 
condition  and  is  about  as  thin  as  a  hen  usually  gets  if  there  is 
any  chance  for  her  ever  being  of  any  use. 


Figure  22. — Showing  Hen  Three  Fingers  Out  of  Condition. 


Figure  23. — Showing  where  the  Imaginary  Lines  Should  be  Drawn  on  the 
First  Joint  of  the  Forefinger  in  Order  to  Judge  the  Condition 
of  the  Hen  or  Pullet. 

Fig.  23,  shows  about  how  the  first  joint  of  an  index  finger 
must  be  divided  up  to  determine  the  three  degrees  of  condi- 
tion. 


42 


THE     CALL     OP     THE     HEN. 


CHAPTER  VI. 
TYPE. 

We  now  come  to  "Type/'  This  in  indicated  by  the  thick- 
ness of  the  "Pelvic  Bones"  together  with  the  flesh,  fat  gristle 
and  cartilage  on  same.  (See  page  17.) 


Figure  24. — 1-16  Inch  Pelvic  Bone. 

Fig.  24,  shows  a  hen  whose  Pelvic  Bones  are  1-16,  (one- 
sixteenth  of  an  inch  thick)  that  is  about  as  thick  as  a  piece  of 
cardboard  that  paper  boxes  anr  made  of  and  the  reader  must 
bear  in  mind  that  the  measurement  of  the  Pelvic  Bones  does  not 
mean  the  bone  alone  with  the  skin,  flesh,  gristle  and  fat  scrap- 
ed off,  as  some  may  suppose,  but  with  all  the  above  included 


Figure  25.— 1-8  Inch  Pelvic  Bone. 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 


43 


Fig.  25.     Shows  a  hen  with  Pelvic  Bones  one-eighth  (1-8) 
of  an  inch  thick. 


Figure  26. — 1-4  Inch.  Pelvic  Bone. 


Fig.  26.  Shows  a  hen     with     Pelvic     Bones     one     quarter 
(1-4)  of  an  inch  thick. 


Figure  27.— 3-8  Inch  Pelvic  Bone. 


Fig.  27.     Shows  a  hen    with     Pelvic     Bones     three-eights 
(3-8)  of  an  inch  thick. 


44 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 


Figure  28. — V2    Inch   Pelvic  Bone. 


Fig.  28.  Shows  a  hen  with  Pelvic     Bones    one-half     (l«-2) 
of  an  inch  thick. 


Figure  29. — %   Inch  Pelvic  Bone. 


Fig.  29.     Shows  a  hen  with  Pelvic     Bones     three-quarters 
(3-4)  of  an  inch  thick. 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 


45 


Figure  30. — 1  Inch  Pelvic  Bone. 

Fig.  30.     Shows  a  hen  with  Pelvic  Bones    one     (1)     inch 
thick. 


Figure  31. — 1*4  Inch  Pelvic  Bone. 

Fig.  31.  Shows  a  hen  with  Pelvic  Bones  one  and  one-quar- 
ter (1  1-4)  inches  thick. 


46 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 


Now,  please  bear  in  mind  that  everything  shown  and 
related  here  refers  to  Leghorns,  and  applies  to  other  breeds 
as  well,  only  in  a  lesser  degree,  so  small,  that  it  amounts  to 
almost  nothing  as  I  will  show  later. 


Fie-ure  32. — Crooked  Pelvic   Bone.   "A.  A."   Position  One. 

A.  A.  Fig.  32.  Shows  the  Pelvic  Bones  with  flesh  cleaned 
off. 

B.  B.  Fig.  33.  Shows  the  Pelvic  Bones  with  flesh     strip 
ped  off  farther  and  painted   black   so   they     will     show     up 
better,  you  will  notice  that  the  Pelvic  Bones  in  Fig.     32     and 
Fig.  33  are  crooked.    The  majority  of  poultry  have    more    or 
less  crooked  Pelvic  Bones.     Sometimes  the  bones  come  close 
together  which  is  an  obstruction  in  laying  and  should  be  bred 
away  from  as  much  as  possible. 

Fig.  34  shows  perfect  Pelvic  Bones.  In  this  form  they 
are  very  easy  to  take  between  the  thumb  and  finger,  also  when 
the  hen  wants  to  lay,  the  vent  has  a  chance  to  fall  down  be- 
tween the  Pelvic  Bones,  which  allows  the  egg  to  be  delivered 
without  straining  on  the  part  of  the  hen.  Not  every  poultry- 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 


47 


Figure  33. — Crooked  Pelvic  Bone.  "B.  B."  Position  Two. 

man,  but  every  poultry-woman  has  seen  cases  where  a  hen 
has  gone  on  the  nest  and  after  a  couple  of  hours  commence  to 
cackle  her  head  off.  Presently  we  hear  the  whole  flock  take 
up  the  chorus  and  going  to  see  whjat  the  trouble  is  we  find  the 
hens  holding  an  "Old  Maids'  Convention",  and  declaring  they 
will  never  lay  another  egg,  it  hurts  them  so  much  to  do  so. 
On  examining  them  we  find  the  Pelvic  Bones  so  crooked  they 
come  together  like  the  horns  on  a  Jersey  cow,  and  when  the 
hens  lay,  instead  of  the  vent  dropping  down  between  the  pelvic 
bones  allowing  the  egg  to  be  released  in  an  easy  manner  in 
a  few  minutes  after  the  hen  goes  on  the  nest,  the  egg  is  forced 
to  be  delivered  between  the  Pelvic  Bones  and  Tail  Bone,  thus 
prolonging  the  agony  of  the  hen  sometimes  for  hours,  when 
if  she  was  built  right  as  in  Fig.  34  she  would  be  relieved  of  the 
egg  without  pain  in  a  few  minutes.  And  instead  of  wasting 
vitality  in  getting  relieved  of  the  egg  she  would  be  rustling 
around  for  material  to  build  another  one  land  thus  add  at  least 
20  per  cent  to  her  egg  producing  value.  This  matter  of  crook- 
ed Pelvic  Bones  is  more  frequent  in  some  breeds  than  in 
others  and  is  a  serious  matter  that  is  very  easily  remedied  by 
breeding  only  from  birds  with  the  straightest  Pelvic  Bones, 


48 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 


Figure  34. — Most  Perfect  Pelvic  Bones  "C.  C." 


especially  looking  after  the  Male  Birds  as  one  m&le  bird  with 
crooked  Pelvic  Bones  will  transmit  this  defect  to  all  of  his 
daughters. 

When  I  came  to  Petaluma  1  found  whole  flocks  of  thous- 
ands of  hens  with  crooked  bones,  now  they  are  very  rare.  The 
poultry  breeders  soon  caught  on  to  my  Straight  and  Thin  Pel- 
vic Bone  idea,  and  I  think  the  Society  for  the  Prevention  of 
Cruelty  to  Animals  should  recognize  my  service  in  relieving 
millions  of  hens  of  the  agony  of  parturition. 

The  reader  will  please  bear  in  mind  that  Fig.  34  represents 
100  per  cent  Pelvic  Bone,  and  holds  the  same  relation  to  Pelvic 
Bones  in  general  that  a  bird  that  scores  100  in  the  show  room 
holds  to  all  other  high  class  birds. 

A  250  egg  type  cock  bird  or  cockerel  with  Pelvic  Bones 
like  cut  34  would  be  of  inestimable  value.  The  writer  has  cock 
birds  like  the  above  that  he  would  not  part  with  for  any  money, 
for  the  reason  that  it  would  take  several  years  breeding  to 
produce  their  equals. 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN.  49 

If  the  reader  has  male  birds  whose  Pelvic  Bones  are  far 
enough  apart  that  he  can  grasp  the  ends  with  thumb  and  finger 
when  measuring  the  thickness,  he  should  be  satisfied  until  he 
can  do  better. 

I  have  found  more  straight  Pelvic  Bones  in  some  strains  of 
Orpingtons  than  in  any  other  breed.  So  long  as  the  Pelvic 
Bones  are  comparatively  straight  after  leaving  the  frame,  and 
do  not  curve  abrubtly  toward  the  ends,  the  birds  may  be  used  as 
a  breeder  with  the  assurance  that  some  of  the  offspring  will 
show  a  wonderful  improvement  in  this  respect.  Figs.  32,  33,  34 
are  extreme  cases. 


CHAPTER  VII. 
THE  FIRST  LAYING  YEAR. 

What  is  meant  by  the  first  laying  year?  All  old  poul- 
trymen  know  what  the  above  means  and  I  have  no  doubt 
some  of  my  readers  may  be  impatient  with  me  for  explaining 
little  things  that  are  so  familiar  to  them.  But  they  will  re- 
member that  poultry  parlance  is  not  all  contained  in  the  dic- 
tionary, and  a  grofat  deal  of  the  contents  of  this  book  may  be 
Greek  to  the  beginners  in  the  poultry  business  who  will  read 
this  work.  For  this  reason  I  cannot  be  too  plain  in  my  lan- 
guage, or  too  careful  of  details  in  explaining  matters.  The 
first  laying  year  has  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  age  of  a 
hen  or  a  pullet.  I  have  had  hens  that  had  passed  'their  first 
laying  year  when  they  were  16  months  old.  On  the  other 
hand  I  have  seen  hens  that  were  over  four  years  old  that  h&d 
not  commenced  on  their  first  laying  year.  The  hen  that  had 
passed  her  first  laying  year  when  she  was  16  months  old  had. 
commenced  to  lay  when  she  w)as  four  months  old,  while  the 
hens  that  were  over  four  years  old  had  never  laid  an  egg.  So 
the  reader  will  see  the  first  laying  year  commences  wi"-i  the 
first  egg  a  puliet  lays,  and  en^i>  cue  year  from  that  date,  when 
her  second  laying  year  commences.  Some  pullets  will  com- 
mence to  lay  at  four  months  old,  While  others  of  exact:/  the 
same  type,  fed  and  cared  iov  in  the  same  manner  will  not  l.iy 
before  they  ere  eight  months  old,  owing  to  different  environ- 
ments. Everything  else  oc  ng  equal,  poultry  will  develop 
faster  on  a  warm  dry  sandy  soil  than  they  will  ton  :i  black 


50  THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 

damp  heavy  soil.  And  they  will  mature  much  sooner  in  a 
good  corn  country  where  it  is  warm  in  the  shade  and  w^irin 
at  night  than  they  will  in  a  poor  corn  country  where  it  is  cool 
at  night  and  cool  in  the  day  time  in  the  shade.  I  have  raised 
Leghorn  pullets  that  were  fully  developed  in  size  and  form 
and  laid  a  full  sized  egg  when  they  were  four  months  old. 

It  can  be  done  in  Massachusetts,  New  York,  New  Hamp- 
shire and  Minnesota,  and  in  parts  of  California  where  the 
nights  are  so  warm  that  one  can  sleep  comfortably  under  a 
sheet  only.  But  not  where  you  have  to  cuddle  under  a  lot  of 
blankets  on  a  summer  night  to  keep  warm. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
THE  SELECTION  OF  TYPES. 

If  the  reader  has  practiced  handling  a  hen  as  in  Figures  5- 
6-7-8-9-10  and  11,  we  will  proceed  with  a  lesson  in  judging 
hens  as  to  the  number  of  eggs  they  will  lay  their  first  laying 
year. 

We  will  look  for  a  small  hen  to  commence  with,  as 
she  will  be  easier  to  handle.  Having  our  hen,  we  will  hold 

CHART  1. 
One  Finger  Abdomen 

1-16  pelvic  bone 36  eggs 

1-8     pelvic  bone 32  eggs 

3-16  pelvic  bone 28  eggs 

1-4     pelvic  bone 24  eggs 

5-16  pelvic  bone 20  eggs 

3-8     pelvic  bone 16  eggs 

7-16  pelvic  bone 12  eggs 

1-2     pelvic  bone    8  eggs 

9-16  pelvic  bone    ....    4  eggs 

5-8     pelvic  bone 0  eggs 

her  as  nearly  as  we  can  as  in  Fig.  5,  and  try  to  have  her  head  as 
in  Fig.  6  so  she  can  see  nothing.  She  will  then  be  easier  to 
handle.  Place  hand  across  her  abdomen  as  in  Fig.  7.  She  may 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN.  51 

be  a  one  finger  abdomen  hen  as  in  Fig.  12.  Then  hold  her  as 
in  Fig.  8.  Her  breast  may  be  as  in  Fig.  19,  if  so  she  will  be  in 
good  condition.  Next  go  through  movements  as  in  Fig.  9  and 
10  and  hold  her  and  examine  her  Pelvic  Bone  as  in  Fig.  11. 
Her  Pelvic  Bone  may  be  one  sixteenth  (1-16)  of  an  inch  thick 
as  in  Fig.  24.  Now  look  on  Chart  No.  1.  Your  hen  is  one 
finger  abdomen  in  good  condition  and  Pelvic  Bone  is  one  six- 
teenth (1-16)  of  an  inch  thick.  You  will  see  that  she  is  a  thir- 
ty-six egg  type  hen.  That  means  that  if  this  hen  is  one  of  a 
large  number  on  a  commercial  poultry  plant  she  is  capable  of 
laying  three  dozen  eggs  her  first  laying  year  if  she  is  fed  and 
cared  for  properly,  barring  accidents  and  disease.  So  we  call 
her  a  36  egg  type  hen. 

We  will  drop  this  hen  and  take  (another  from  the  crate 
and  go  through  the  same  movements,  hold  her  as  in  Fig  5  or 
/,  with  head  as  in  Fig.  6  (she  may  also  be  a  one  finger  abdo- 
men hen  as  in  Fig.  12)  then  examine  for  Condition  as  in  Fig. 
8.  Her  condition  may  be  good  as  in  Fig.  19,  then  hold  as 
in  Fig.  9  and  10,  and  measure  thickness  of  Pelvic  Bone  as  in 
Fig.  11.  Her  Pelvic  Bone  may  be  three  eights  (3-8)  of  an  inch 
thick  as  in  Fig.  27.  In  that  case  she  would  read  like  this:  One 
finger  abdomen,  good  condition,  three-eights  (3-8)  Pelvic 
Bone.  Now  look  on  Chart  No.  1  and  you  will  find  she  is  a 
16  egg  type  hen.  We  will  drop  her  and  take  another  from  the 
crate  and  go  through  the  same  movements  as  before.  This  hen 
may  be  a  one  finger  hen  also,  in  good  condition  w'ith  Pelvic 
Bones  1-2  inch  thick,  as  in  Fig.  28,  and  by  consulting  the 
chart  No.  1,  we  find  she  is  an  8  egg  type  hen. 

We  drop  her  and  take  another  from  the  crate.  She  may 
be  a  hen  with  one  finger  abdomen  as  in  Fig.  12.  When  we  ex- 
amine her  condition,  We  find  she  is  like  Fig.  20,  which 
indicates  that  she  is  one  finger  out  of  condition,  (the  subject 
of  condition  is  explained  in  chapter  5),  her  pelvic  bone  may  be 
l-16th  of  an  inch  thick  as  in  Fig.  24.  This  hen  will  read  differ- 
ent from  the  other  hen  that  w>as  l-16th  Pelvic  Bone.  This 
hen  is  out  of  condition.  She  may  have  been  in  condition  up  to 
a  few  weeks  previous  to  our  examination  of  her,  the  cause  of 
her  lack  of  condition  may  be  improper  feed  or  care  or  both, 
or  it  may  be  due  to  moulting  or  she  may  have  been  broody.  In 
any  of  these  cases,  it  would  not  be  the  hen's  fault  that  she  was 
out  of  condition  and  she  should  not  be  held  responsible  for  it. 
Her  condition  indicates  that  there  is  something  wrong  and 


52  THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 

it's  up  to  her  owner  to  right  the  wrong,  and  when  we  do 
right  the  wrong,  the  hen  will  come  back  into  condition  and 
her  abdomen  will  then  measure  two  fingers  instead  of  one  fin- 
ger. We  must  therefore  read  her  as  a  two  fiingered  abdomen 
hen,  l-16th  Pelvic  Bone,  when  by  looking  on  our  Chart  No.  2, 
we  find  her  capacity  would  be  96  eggs  her  first  laying  year  if 
we  kept  her  in  condition. 

We  will  drop  her  and  take  another  hen  out  of  the  crate. 
This  hen  may  be  a  one  fingered  abdomen  hen  as  in  Fig.  12. 
When  we  examine  her  for  condition  we  find  her  as  in  Fig.  21. 
This  indicates  that  she  is  two  fingers  out  of  condition;  her 
Pelvic  Bone  may  be  l-16th  of  an  inch.  Under  her  present 
condition,  she  might  lay  36  eggs  her  first  laying  year,  whereas, 
if  she  was  kept  in  good  condition  she  might1  lay  180  eggs. 

WTe  will  drop  this  hen  and  take  another  one.  She  may  be 
two  fingers  abdomen  and  her  breast  bone  may  be  as  in  Fig. 
19.  Her  Pelvic  Bone  may  be  l-16th  of  an  inch.  We  would 

CHART  2. 
Two  Fingers  Abdomen. 

1-16  pelvic  bone 96  eggs 

1-8     pelvic  bone    87  eggs 

3-16  pelvic  bone    78  eggs 

1-4     pelvic  bone    69  eggs 

5-16  pelvic  bone. 60  eggs 

3-8     pelvic  bone 51  eggs 

7-16  pelvic  bone    42  eggs 

1-2     pelvic  bone 33  eggs 

9-16  pelvic  bone 24  eggs 

5-8     pelvic  bone 15  eggs 

11-16  pelvic  bone 6  eggs 

3-4     pelvic  bone 0  eggs 

read  her  as  a  two  fingered  hen  in  good  condition,  Pelvic  Bones 
l-16th  of  an  inch  thick.  We  will  look  on  Chart  two  at  Pelvic 
Bones  1-16  and  find  she  is  a  96  egg  type  hen. 

We  will  drop  her  and  take  another  from  the  crate.  She 
may  be  two  fingers  abdomen  and  two  fingers  out  of  condition 
as  in  Fig.  21,  with  Pelvic  Bones  l-4th  of  an  inch  thick.  She 
would  read  two  fingers  abdomen  and  two  fingers  out  of  condi- 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN.  53 

tion.  She  would  be  four  fingers  abdomen  if  in  condition  and 
1-4  Pelvic  Bones.  Being  a  four  fingered  hen  (if  in 
condition),  we  will  look  on  No.  4  Chart,  at  1-4  Pelvic  Bones 
and  find  she  is  a  175  egg  type  hen.  We  will  drop  her. 

Take  another.  She  may  be  a  two  fingered  abdomen  hen  as 
in  Fig.  13,  in  good  condition  as  in  Fig.  19,  with  Pelvic  Bones 
3-4  of  an  inch  thick,  as  n  Fig.  29.  She  would  read  two  finger 
abdomen,  good  condition,  3-4  of  an  inch  Pelvic  Bones.  We 
will  look  on  Chart  No.  2  to  3-4  Pelvic  Bones  and  find  this  hen 
will  lay  nothing.  This  does  not  mean  that  she  is  an  obsolutely 
barren  hen,  that  she  will  never  lay  an  egg,  (I  will  expl'ain  this 
when  we  get  to  the  six  finger  abdomen  hen).  She  may  lay  a 
few,  perhaps  half  a  dozen,  in  the  spring,  when  the  crows  lay 
but  as  a  commercial  proposition,  she  Will  have  no  more  value 
than  the  hen  that  never  laid  an  egg.  Everything  she  con- 
sumes, goes  to  the  making  of  flesh  except  what  she  uses  in 
bodily  maintenance.  We  will  drop  her  and  take  another.  She 
may  be  a  three  finger  abdomen  hen  as  in  Fig.  14.  Her  condi- 
tion may  be  as  in  Fig.  19,  with  Pelvic  Bones  as  in  Fig.  24.  She 

CHART  3. 

Three  Fingers  Abdomen. 

1-16  pelvic  bone 180  eggs 

1-8  pelvic  bone 166  eggs 

3-16  pelvic  bone    152  eggs 

1-4  pelvic  bone 138  eggs 

5-16  pelvic  bone    124  eggs 

3-8  pelvic  bone    110  eggs 

7-16  pelvic  bone 96  eggs 

1-2  pelvic  bone 82  eggs 

9-16  pelvic  bone 68  eggs 

5-8  pelvic  bone 54  eggs 

11-16  pelvic  bone 40  eggs 

3-4  pelvic  bone 26  eggs 

13-16  pelvic  bone 12  eggs 

7-8  pelvic  bone ..       0  eggs 

would  read  three  finger  abdomen,  in  good  condition,  1-16 
(one  sixteenth)  Pelvic  Bone.  We  look  on  No.  3  chart  at  1-16 
Pelvic  Bone  and  find  that  this  hen  is  a  180  egg  type. 


54  THE     CALL,     OF     THE     HEN. 

We  will  drop  her  and  take  another.  She  may  be  another 
three  finger  abdomen  hen  like  Fig.  14.  She  may  be  in  good 
condition  like  Fig.  19  and  her  Pelvic  Bone  may  be  1-2  inch 
thick,  like  Fig.  28.  She  would  read  three  finger  abdomen, 
good  condition,  one-half  inch  Pelvic  Bone.  We  will  look  on 
No.  3  Chart,  at  1-2  in.  Pelvic  Bone  and  find  this  hen  is  an 
82  egg  type  hen.  We  will  take  another  hen.  She  may  be 
three  fingers  abdomen  like  Fig.  14.  She  may  be  in  good  con- 
dition like  No.  19  and  her  Pelvic  Bones  may  be  3-4  inch  (three- 
fourths  inch  thick),  as  in  Fig.  29.  We  will  read  her  as  a  three 
fingered  hen,  in  good  condition,  3-4  Pelvic  Bone.  We  will  look 
on  No.  3  chart  at  3-4  inch  Pelvic  Bone  and  find  she  is  a  twenty- 
six  egg  type  hen. 

We  will  pick  up  another  hen.  She  may  be  three  fingers 
capacity  as  in  Fig.  14.  She  may  be  three  fingers  out  of  condi- 
tion as  in  Fig.  22,  and  her  Pelvic  Bones  may  be  1-16  of  an 
inch  thick  as  in  Fig.  24.  We  would  read  this  hen  as  three 
fingers  abdomen;  three  fingers  out  of  condition  and  l-16th 
(one  sixteenth)  Pelvic  Bone.  When  a  hen  is  three  fingers  out 
of  condition,  she  is  in  a  serious  way.  She  may  have  been  set- 
ting or  laying  heavy  and  have  been  underfed.  In  either  case, 
good  care  and  plenty  of  the  right  kind  of  feed  will  bring  her 
back  into  condition,  provided  she  has  not  contracted  tubercu- 
losis, (going  light)  or  some  other  wasting  disease,  I  will 
cite  a  couple  of  cases,  out  of  hundreds  that  have  come  under 
my  observation,  one  was  a  barred  rock  hen  that  I  intended  to 
set  on  duck  eggs.  She  was  six  fingers  abdomen,  in  good  con- 
dition when  I  put  her  on  the  nest,  and  1-4  inch  Pelvic  Bones. 
That  indicated  that  she  was  a  235  egg  type  hen.  She  was  on 
the  nest  two  weeks  before  the  duck  eggs  arrived  and  four 
weeks  on  the  duck  eggs  making  six  weeks  setting.  Owing  to 
stress  of  other  vork  and  being  confined  in  an  out  of  the  way 
place  she  was  somewhat  neglected  and  when  the  ducklings 
were  hatched  she  was  three  fingers  abdomen  and  three 
finge's  out  of  condition  thus  indicating  a  138  egg  type  hen. 
Six  weeks  later  she  was  laying  and  had  developed  to  six  fin- 
gers abdomen  which  was  her  normal  condition.  Another  case 
was  where  a  gentleman  was  in  a  class  that  took  instructions. 
After  the  close  of  the  meeting  he  brought  a  hen  that  was 
three  fingers  out  of  condition.  He  said  that  was  his  best  hen 
and  asked  me  how  many  eggs  she  would  lay.  She  was  three 


THE     CALL     OF    THE    HEN.  55 

fingers  abdomen,  three  ringers  out  of  condition  and  1-16  pelvic 
bones.  Her  head  and  actions  indicated  perfect  health.  I  told 
him  she  might  lay  180  eggs  her  first  laying  year  if  her  condi- 
tion had  been  the  same  as  it  was  at  the  present  time  but  if 
she  was  my  hen  I  thought  I  might  be  able  to  make  her  Iny 
280  eggs.  You  don't  feed  her  half  enough.  He  replied:  "That 
is  the  only  hen  I  have  that  lays  a  white  egg.  I  got  her  when  a 
pullet  before  she  commenced  to  lay.  She  has  been  laying1  about 
a  year  and  has  laid  176  eggs.  I  Wad  a  small  lot  of  hens  at  the 
time  that  were  so  fat  they  were  dying  and  I  cut  down  their 
feed  and  have  fed  them  sparingly  ever  since  so  they 
would  not  get  too  fat  and  die.  I  went  to  his  place  and  found 
he  had  three  types  of  hens,  the  typical  meat  type  (one  with 
pelvic  bones  one  inch  and  one-eighth  thick),  some  with  pelvic 
bones  a  half  inch  thick,  and  this  hen  that  layed  the  white  eggs 
w*hose  pelvic  bones  were  1-16  of  an  inch  thick.  I  told  him  to 
segregate  his  hens  into  three  lots,  and  feed  them  according  to 
their  type.  Give  the  egg  type  all  the  grain  they  could  clean 
up  each  day  in  scratching  shed  with  a  dry  balanced  rrtash  be- 
fore them  all  the  time..  The  dual  purpose  type  hens  should 
be  fed  all  the  grain  they  wished  to  scratch  for,  with  an  occas- 
ional mash  and  the  beef  type  hens  should  be  fed  what  grain 
they  could  clean  up  in  the  scratching  shed  in  about  an  hour. 
The  litter  should  be  good  and  deep  in  all  cases.  I  did  not 
mention  charcoal,  grit,  shells  and  green  stuff  as  that  is  not  my 
business.  Every  man  who  takes  a  poultry  paper  knows  that 
part  of  the  business  and  every  person  who  keeps  poultry 
should  take  a  poultry  paper  in  order  to  keep  'posted  on  cur- 
rent poultry  topics. 

The  gentlenuan  wrote  me  over  a  year  later  that  he  had 
succeeded  in  bringing  the  hen  up  to  normal  condition  as  in 
Fig.  19,  but  after  laying  a  while  she  went  back  to  five  fingers 
abdomen  and  one  finger  out  of  condition  and  had  layed  238 
eggs  her  next  laying  year. 

We  will  now  take  another  hen.  She  may  be  four  fingers 
abdomen  as  in  Fig.  15,  in  good  condition  as  in  Fig.  19  and  her 
pelvic  bones  may  be  (1-16)  one  sixteenth  of  an  inch  thick  as 
in  Fig.  24.  She  would  read  four  fingers  abdomen,  good  condi- 
tion 1-16  pelvic  bone.  If  we  consult  No.  4  chart  we  will  find 
she  is  a  220  egg  type  hen.  The  next  hen  may  be  also  four 
fingers  abdomen  as  in  Fig.  15,  in  good  condition  as  in  Fig.  19, 


56  THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 

with  pelvic  bones  1-2  inch  as  in  Fig.  28.  She  would  read  four 
lingers  abdomen  in  good  condition  one  half  inch  pelvic  bones. 
We  will  see  by  chart  No.  4  that  this  is  a  115  egg  type  hen.  Our 
next  hen  may  be  a  four-finger  abdomen  hen,  condition  good, 
pelvic  bones  1  inch  thick.  We  would  read  her  as  four-finger 
abdomen,  condition  good,  pelvic  bones  one  inch.  If  we  look 
on  No.  4  chart  at  one  inch  pelvic  bones  we  will  find  this  hen 
will  lay  approximately  nothing. 

CHART  4. 
Four  Finger  Abdomen. 

1-16     pelvic  bone 220  eggs 

1-8       pelvic  bone    205  eggs 

3-16     pelvic  bone 190  eggs 

1-4       pelvic  bone    175  eggs 

5-16     pelvic  bone 160  eggs 

3-8       pelvic  bone 145  eggs 

7-16     pelvic  bone    130  eggs 

1-2       pelvic  bone 115  eggs 

9-16     pelvic  bone 100  eggs 

5--8       pelvic  bone 85  eggs 

11-16  pelvic  bone 70  eggs 

3-4       pelvic  bone 55  eggs 

13-16  pelvic  bone 40  eggs 

7-8       pelvic  bone 25  eggs 

15-16  pelvic  bone    40  eggs 

1   in.     pelvic  bone 0  eggs 

Our  next  hen  may  be  a  four  fingered  abdomen  hen  one 
finger  out  of  condition,  1-8  pelvic  bone.  She  would  indicate  a 
205  egg  type  hen  under  her  present  condition  but  we  would 
read  her  four  fingers  abdomen  one  out  of  condition  that 
would  mean  a  five  finger  hen  if  in  condition  one  eighth  pelvic 
bone.  We  look  on  No.  5  chart  at  1-8  pelvic  bone  and  find  she 
is  a  235  egg  type  hen. 

Our  next  hen  may  be  a  five  fingered  abdomen  hen  as  in 
Fig.  16.  She  may  be  in  good  condition  as  in  No.  19,  and 
her  pelvic  bones  may  be  1-16  of  an  inch  as  in  Fig.  24.  She  will 
read  five  fingers  abdomen,  condition  good,  pelvic  bones  1-16. 
We  look  on  No.  5  chart  at  1-16  pelvic  bones  and  find  she  is  a 
250  egg  type  hen. 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN.  57 

CHART  5. 
Five  Fingers  Abdomen. 

1-16  pelvic  bone 250  eggs 

1-8  pelvic  bone 235  eggs 

3-16  pelvic  bone    220  eggs 

1-4  pelvic  bone 205  eggs 

5-16  pelvic  bone    190  eggs 

3-8  pelvic  bone 175  eggs 

7-16  pelvic  bone 160  eggs 

1-2  pelvic  bone 145  eggs 

9-16  pelvic  bone    130  eggs 

5-8  pelvic  bone 115  eggs 

11-16  pelvic  bone 100  eggs 

3-4  pelvic  bone 85  eggs 

13-16  pelvic  bone    70  eggs 

7-8  pelvic  bone 55  eggs 

15-16  pelvic  bone 40  eggs 

1   in.  pelvic  bone 25  eggs 

1   1-16  pelvic  bone 10  eggs 

1    1-8  pelvic  bone 0  eggs 

Our  next  hen  may  be  a  five  finger  abdomen  hen  as  in  Fig. 
16;  she  may  be  in  good  condition  as  in  No.  19,  and 
her  pelvic  bones  may  be  3-8  thick  as  in  Fig.  27.  We  would  read 
her  as  five  fingers  abdomen,  good  condition,  and  3-8  pelvic 
bones.  No.  5  chart  would  show  us  that  she  was  a  175  egg  type 
hen.  The  m-.xt  hen  may  be  a  five  finger  abdomen  hen,  condi- 
tion good,  peivic  bones  one  inch  thick.  She  would  read  five 
fingers  abdomen,  good  condition,  one  inch  pelvic  bones.  The 

chart  would  indicate  that  she  was  a  25  egg  type  hen. 

The  next  hen  may  be  a  six  fingered  hen  as  in  Fig.  17.  She 
may  be  in  good  condition  and  her  pelvic  bones  may  be  1  1-4 
inches  thick  (one  and  one  fourth  inches  thick)  as  in  Fig.  31. 
I  hear  the  reader  say  what  breed  of  a  hen  has  pelvic  bones  as 
thick  as  that,  or  do  you  mean  that  both  of  her  pelvic  bones 
arc  one  and  one  fourth  inches  thick  counting  them  both  to- 
gether? No,  I  mean  that  each  one  of  her  pelvic  bones  is  one 
and  one  fourths  of  an  inch  thick.  Counting  the  bone,  gristle, 
fat  and  flesh  (flank)  both  of  the  pelvic  bones  would  be  two 
and  one  half  inches.  When  we  speak  of  pelvic  bones  being  so, 
and  so  thick  we  always  means  one  of  them.  And  as  to  breed, 


58 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN 


this  hen  is  a  single  comb  white  leghorn.  She  is  the  typical  beef 
type.  You  will  see  by  No.  6  chart  that  she  will  lay  practically 
nothing  and  here  I  will  explain  this  matter.  A  man  once 
brought  me  a  two  and  a  half  year  old  hen  that  he  had  trap 
nested  for  two  years,  and  asked  me  to  tell  him  how  many 
eggs  she  had  layed  her  first  laying  year.  I  told  him  she  had 
never  laid  an  egg.  Her  abdomen  was  six  fingers,  she  was  in 
good  condition,  her  pelvic  bones  were  one  and  one  fourth  of 

CHART  6. 

Six  Fingers  Abdomen. 
Nervous  Temperament. 

1-16  pelvic  bone 280  eggs 

1-8  pelvic  bone 265  eggs 

3-16  pelvic  bone 250  eggs 

1-4  pelvic  bone  .. 235  eggs 

5-16  pelvic  bone 220  eggs 

Sanguine  Temperament. 

3-8         pelvic  bone 205  eggs 

7-16       pelvic  bone 190  eggs 

1-2         pelvic  bone 175  eggs 

9-16       pelvic  bone 160  eggs 

5-8         pelvic  bone    145  eggs 

Bilious  Temperament. 

11-16  pelvic  bone 130  eggs 

3-4  pelvic  bone 115  eggs 

13-16  pelvic  bone 100  eggs 

7-8  pelvic  bone 85  eggs 

15-16  pelvic  bone 70  eggs 

Lymphatic  Temperament. 

in.      pelvic  bone 55  eggs 

1-16  pelvic  bone 40  eggs 

1-8     pelvic  bone 25  eggs 

3-16  pelvic  bone 10  eggs 

1-4     pelvic  bone 0  eggs 

an  inch  thick.  He  cautioned  me  to  be  careful  as  he  had  always 
trap-nested  his  hens  and  his  record  showed  how  many  eggs 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN.  59 

they  had  laid.  I  replied  if  that  is  the  case  her  record  shows 
that  she  has  never  laid  an  egg.  He  said  no  more  then  but 
brought  me  another  hen  asking  me  how  many  will  she  lay.  I 
examined  her  for  capacity.  I  found  she  was  a  six  fingered  ab- 
domen hen,  her  condition  was  good,  her  pelvic  bones  were 
1-16  of  an  inch  thick.  They  were  both  alike  as  to  thickness.  I 
questioned  him  as  to  how  he  had  fed  her  and  if  she  had  been 
sick  her  first  laying  year.  As  he  is  one  of  the  best  breeders  in 
the  United  States  I  could  depend  on  him  knowing  what  he 
was  talking  about.  I  asked  him  then  to  take  off  his  hat.  I 
could  see  by  the  shape  of  his  head  he  was  a  strictly  honest 
man.  I  then  told  him  that  I  had  never  raised  that  breed  of 
hens.  But  if  it  was  a  Leghorn  it  might  lay  280  eggs  its  first 
laying  year  and  if  a  Plymouth  Rock  it  might  lay  270.  He  re- 
plied her  trap  nest  record  shows  she  laid  276  eggs  from  the 
time  she  commenced  to  lay  in  her  pullet  year,  until  she  had 
ilaid  one  year.  That's  alright,"  I  replied,  "but  what  about  the 
first  hen  we  examined?"  "We  have  never  found  any  in  the 
trap  nest  from  her,"  he  said,  "but  she  might  be  in  the  hab't 
of  laying  in  the  yard."  And  as  he  was  offered  $1000  for  her  he 
was  very  anxious  to  get  some  chickens  from  her.  I  explained 
to  him  that  while  most  typical  beef  hens  could  be  made  to  lay 
a  very  small  number  of  eggs  in  the  spring  When  the  crows 
laid,  by  feeding  them  a  little  lean  meat,  and  shrunken  wheat 
and  bran  on  a  grass  plot  of  white  clover  (if  the  blossoms  of  the 
white  clover  are  clipped  off)  that  his  hen  could  not  be  made 
to  lay  as  she  was  a  barren  hen  as  indicated  by  the  rigid  cord 
that  connected  both  of  the  pelvic  bones  together  thus  indicat- 
ing that  nature  never  intended  her  to  lay.  I  could  name  a  num- 
ber of  professors  and  physicians  that  have  told  me  they  have 
discovered  the  same  condition  after  they  had  taken  my  les- 
sons. 

The  reader  will  please  bear  in  mind  that  the  two  pelvic 
bones  of  a  hen  are  not  always  of  the  same  thickness.  Some 
hens  may  have  one  pelvic  bone  thicker  than  the  other.  When 
this  is  the  case  add  the  two  together  and  half  of  the  number 
will  be  the  right  thickness  to  judge  by.  For  instance,  if  one 
pelvic  bone  was  one-eighth  of  an  inch  and  the  other  was  one- 
fourth  of  an  inch  the  added  thickness  would  be  three-eighths  of 
an  inch.  Dividing  this  would  give  you  three-sixteenths  as  the 
thickness  of  one  pelvic  bone.  Where  one  bone  is  thicker  than 


60  THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 

the  other  the  thinnest  one  is  on  the  left  side  of  the  hen. 

Our  next  hen  may  be  another  six  fingers  abdomen  hen  as 
in  Fig.  17.  She  may  be  in  good  condition  as  in  Fig.  19,  her  pel- 
vic bones  may  be  1-8  inch  thick  as  in  Fig.  25.  She  would  be  a 
265  egg  type  hen. 

Our  next  hen  may  be  a  six  finger  abdomen  hen  in  good 
condition,  pelvic  bones  3-8.  She  would  read  six  fingers  abdo- 
men, good  condition,  pelvic  bones  3-8  of  an  inch.  By  consult- 
ing chart  No.  6  we  will  find  this  is  a  205  egg  type  hen. 

Our  next  hen  may  be  a  six  finger  abdomen  hen  in  good 
condition,  1-2  inch  pelvic  bones.  This  hen  will  be  175  egg 
type  hen. 

Our  next  hen  may  be  a  six  finger  abdomen  hen  in  good 
condition,  pelvic  bones  one  inch.  We  will  look  on  No.  6 
chart  and  find  that  one  inch  pelvic  bones  indicates  the  55  egg 
type  hen. 

Our  next  hen  may  be  a  four  finger  abdomen  hen.  She  may 
be  two  fingers  out  of  condition  as  in  Fig.  21  and  her  pelvic 
bones  may  be  one  sixteenth  of  an  inch  thick.  We  would  read 
her  as  four  fingers  abdomen,  two  fingers  out  of  condition.  This 
would  make  her  a  six  finger  hen  if  in  condition.  We  look  on 
No.  6  chart  to  1-16  pelvic  bone  and  find  our  last  hen  is  a  280 
egg  type  hen  if  in  condition,  and  its  up  to  us  to  put  her  in  con- 
dition and  keep  her  there  as  nearly  as  possible. 

I  will  admit  it  is  a  hard  proposition  to  keep  the  non-setting 
typical  egg  type  hen  in  condition  but  the  man  that  comes  the 
nearest  to  doing  so  is  the  best  feeder.  I  will  have  more  to 
say  in  regard  to  the  matter  of  condition  in  the  chapter  on 
judging  utility  fowls  at  the  Poultry  Shows.  This  work  is  a 
matter  of  line  upon  line  and  I  must  necessarily  repeat  the 
same  matter  in  some  respects  time  after  time.  But  as  this  is 
an  educational  more  than  an  entertaining  proposition  I  hope 
that  my  readers  will  bear  with  me. 

As  I  have  said  before  there  are  three  types  of  hens.  The 
hen  listed  on  chart  No.  1  as  1-16  pelvic  hone  is  a  typical  egg 
type  hen.  Because  all  she  consumes  over  bodily  maintenance 
goes  to  the  production  of  eggs.  The  hen  listed  as  3-8  pelvic 
bone  is  a  dual  purpose  hen,  half  of  her  vitality  is  used  in  pro- 
ducing eggs  and  half  in  producing  meat.  The  hen  listed  as  5-8 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN.  61 

is  a  typical  meat  type  hen.  All  she  consumes  goes  to  the  pro- 
duction of  meat,  except  what  she  uses  in  bodily  maintenance. 
The  hen  listed  as  1-16  pelvic  bone  on  chart  No.  2  is  a  typical 
egg  tyPe  nen-  The  hen  listed  as  3-8  pelvic  bone  on  same 
chart  is  a  dual  purpose  type  hen  and  the  one  listed  as 
3-4  pelvic  bones  is  a  typical  meat  type  hen  the  same  rule  fol- 
lows in  all  the  charts.  All  the  hens  listed  as  1-16  pelvic  bone 
are  typical  egg  type  hens  and  they  can't  be  made  to  pay  as  a 
meat  proposition.  The  hens  listed  in  the  center  of  each  chart 
are  the  dual  purpose  hens.  They  can  be  used  as  an  egg  and  as 
a  meat  proposition.  The  hens  listed  on  the  bottom  of  each  chart 
are  the  meat  type  hens.  Nature  has  fitted  them  for  the  pro- 
duction of  flesh  and  there  is  no  human  agency  that  can  change 
them  to  a  paying  egg  proposition. 

Between  the  above  three  distinct  types,  there  are  combin- 
ations of  each  adjoining  types  this  allows  sufficient  latitude  for 
the  preference  of  each  individual  breeder.  A  person  can 
breed  the  typical  egg  type  hen  and  cock  bird  with  pelvic  bones 
1-16  of  an  inch  thick.  If  he  thinks  this  type  is  too  delicate  he 
can  breed  from  the  3-16  pelvic  bone  stock.  This  is  my  favorite 
type.  T,he  hen  of  this  type  is  better  able  to  withstand  the  vi- 
cissitudes of  the  poultry  yard  than  her  finer  bred  sisters.  I  will 
have  more  to  say  along  this  line  in  the  chapter  on  broilers.  I 
think  we  have  given  sufficient  examples  in  chapters  3-4-5-6 
and  7  to  enable  the  reader  to  examine  a  hen  so  he  may  be  able 
to  arrive  at  her  approximate  value,  for  the  purpose  he  wishes 
to  use  her  for. 

In  a  previous  chapter  we  have  said  there  is  occasionally 
found  a  hen  seven  fingers  abdomen.  If  the  reader  finds  one 
he  can  score  her  by  chart  No.  6  and  add  fifteen  eggs  to  the 
number  indicated.  For  instance,  if  the  hen  is  in  condition  and 
measures  seven  fingers  abdomen  and  her  pelvic  bones  are  3-8 
thick,  chart  No.  6  would  indicate  she  was  a  205  egg  type  bird, 
we  then  add  15  eggs  to  the  205  which  gives  the  hen  220  egg 
capacity.  If  she  is  five  finger  abdomen  and  two  fingers  out  of 
condition  we  call  her  seven  finger  abdomen  and  proceed  as 
above  which  gives  us  the  same  results,  There  are  two  other 
matters  1  wish  to  call  the  attention  of  the  reader  to  in  this 
place.  One  is  that  I  have  found  hens  occasionally  that  laid  a 
great  deal  better  by  the  trap  nest  than  they  scored  by  the 
Hogan  test,  but  it  was  owing  to  a  mistake  made  in  measuring 


62  THE     CALL,     OF     THE     HEN. 

their  abdomen,  owing  to  the  rear  of  the  breast  bone  turning 
up  sometimes  almost  an  inch  over  normal  shape,  thus  indicat- 
ing ^  smaller  abdomen  than  really  was  the  case.  The  other 
matter  is  a  more  serious  one,  in  fact  very  serious  in  some 
flocks.  It  is  the  bagging  down  of  the  abdomen  over  the  rear 
of  the  breast  bone.  Every  hen  used  in  the  breeding  pen  should 
be  examined  for  this  defect  for  if  one  of  them  is  bred  from  they 
are  almost  sure  to  transmit  their  weak  ovarian  system  to  their 
offspring.  Some  of  these  hens  will  make  remarkable  egg 
records  for  a  year  or  so,  then  will  never  lay  another  egg.  And 
again,  the  eggs  are  liable  to  be  very  infertile  and  more  or  less 
thin  shelled  and  if  you  have  great  numbers  of  hens  can  hardly 
tell  when  these  hens  stop  laying  for  good  unless  you  trap  nest 
them  as  their  Pelvic  Bones  do  not  close  up  as  readily  as  hens 
in  normal  condition. 

An  ounce  of  prevention  is  worth  a  pound  of  cure  in  this 
case  as  it  is  very  easy  to  prevent  all  this  trouble.  I  meet  hun- 
dreds of  the  above  hens  in  my  visits  to  poultry  plants  but  never 
have  a  case  in  my  yards.  I  examine  all  my  pullets  when 
about  a  year  old  for  possible  breeders.  If  a  hen  satisfies  me  as 
to  Capacity,  Type  and  Prepotency  I  then  hold  her  as  if  I  was 
testing  her  for  capacity  except  that  I  hold  her  by  the  right  leg 
only.  I  then  lay  my  hand  on  her  breast  so  that  it  (my  hand) 
will  conform  to  her  shape  and  draw  it  slowly  along  her  breast 
bone  (or  keel)  from  front  to  rear.  When  my  hand  reaches  the 
rear,  if  I  feel  the  slightest  indication  of  her  abdomen  dropping 
the  least  bit  below  the  rear  of  the  breast  bone  I  reject  the  hen 
as  a  breeder  and  thereby  save  myself  a  world  of  trouble  in  the 
future. 


CHAPTER  IX. 
PREPOTENCY. 

We  will  take  up  in  this  chapter  Prepotency,  the 
science  of  breeding  poultry  so  that  we  can  breed  with  a 
definite  knowledge  of  what  we  are  doing  and  not  leave  it  to 
intuition  or  chance.  It  is  an  old  saying  that  like  begets  like. 
This  seems  to  be  true  in  some  cases  but  seems  not  to  be  true 
in  other  cases.  Students  of  human  nature  can  readily  see 
where  it  has  apparently  failed.  Some  children  will  resemble 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN.  63 

and  act  like  one  parent  and  some  will  resemble  and  act  like 
the  other  parent.  Then  again  some  children  will  be  like  neither 
of  the  parents.  Breeders  of  horses  and  cattle  are  well  aware 
of  the  variations  in  offspring  from  the  type  and  characteris- 
tics of  sire  and  dam.  It  is  more  through  persistency  in 
breeding,  than  the  general  knowledge  of  any  scientific  prin- 
ciple that  we  have  succeeded  in  producing,  the  grand  types  of 
animals  we  see  at  our  State  Fairs.  The  breeding  of  poultry  is 
no  exception  to  the  above  rule.  While  some  breeders  have 
good  success  in  breeding  for  the  desired  type  of  bird,  whether 
for  fancy,  for  eggs  or  for  flesh,  others  will  have  very  poor  suc- 
cess. 

The  purpose  of  this  chapter  is  to  explain  to  the  breeder 
who  has  had  poor  success  a  method  that  will  enable  him  to 
breed  with  the  full  understanding  as  to  what  he  is  doing.  It 
is  a  well  known  fact  among  the  clothing  trade,  that  if  a  woolen 
manufacturer  has  a  sample  of  cloth  presented  to  him,  he  can 
manufacture  thousands  of  yards  that  will  be  an  exact  dupli- 
cate of  the  sample.  The  same  is  true  in  other  industries.  But 
suppose  the  reader  gives  an  order  to  one  of  our  well  known 
poultry  breeders  for  1000  pullets,  to  be  delivered  at  four 
months  old;  these  pullets  to  be  housed,  fed  and  cared  for  as  the 
breeder  designates,  and  to  approximately  lay  a  certain  number 
of  eggs  their  first  laying  year,  how  many  breeders  do  you  sup- 
pose could  fiJl  the  order.  Until  a  majority  of  them  can  do  so  the 
poultry  industry  will  not  be  on  a  business  basis,  but  will  be 
more  or  less  a  gamble. 

I  have  said  that  seemingly  like  does  not  beget  like  in 
some  cases.  We  will  take,  for  instance,  a  hen  that  is  five  fin- 
gered abdomen  in  good  condition,  1-4  pelvic  bones.  She  will 
scale  up  as  a  205  egg  type  hen.  We  will  mate  up  a  pen  of 
these  hens  with  a  205  egg  type  cockerel  or  cock  bird,  we  raise 
100  pullets  from  this  mating  and  they  may  scale  175  egg  type. 
We  then  say  like  does  not  produce  like.  Here  is  where  we 
make  a  mistake.  In  one  sense  we  are  right;  in  another  we  are 
wrong.  Nature  makes  no  mistakes.  We  have  mated  205  egg 
type  male  and  female  and  we  get  as  a  result  175  egg  type  pro- 
duct. That's  as  plain  as  the  nose  on  one's  face  and  We  throw 
up  our  hands  in  despair  and  say  it's  all  luck  and  chance.  An- 
other party  mates  up  the  same  type  of  birds  and  gets  a  lot  of 
pullets  that  average  210  eggs  their  first  laying  year.  Still  an- 


64  THE     CALL     OP     THE     HEN. 

other  party  mates  up  the  same  type  of  birds  and  does  not  get 
a  chick. 

The  reader  may  smile,  but  this  is  no  dream.,  A  number 
of  such  cases  have  come  under  my  observation.  One  case  was 
that  of  a  professor  in  one  of  the  Southern  California  public 
institutions.  He  had  a  pen  of  twelve  Black  Minorcas,  headed 
by  a  splendid  looking  cock  bird,  also  a  pen  of  twelve  Andalus- 
ians.  He  said  there  was  something  peculiar  about  these  hens 
and  he  wanted  to  know  if  I  could  detect  it.  I  tested  all  the 
Andalusians  and  told  him  they  should  average  140  eggs  their 
first  laying  year  and  I  would  expect  twelve  eggs  out  of  every 
thirteen  to  be  fertile.  After  testing  the  Minorcas  I  told  him 
they  would  average  about  160  egg  type,  but  if  they  were  mine 
I  would  not  set  any  of  their  eggs  while  they  were  mated  to 
the  present  cock  bird,  because  I  would  not  expect  them  to 
hatch  and  if  any  did  hatch  they  would  be  degenerates.  He 
said,  "This  is  the  second  season  I  have  bred  from  the  birds.  I 
always  get  good  hatches  from  the  Andalusians,  but  although  I 
see  the  rooster  serve  the  hens,  I  have  never  been  able  to  hatch 
a  chicken  from  the  Minorca  pen."  I  replied,  "He  serves  the 
hens  out  of  sympathy." 

Another  case  was  a  Barred  Rock  hen,  the  only  one  a 
neighbor  had  in  a  small  flock  of  Houdans.  He  called  me  one 
day,  saying  he  had  a  remarkable  pullet  at  his  place  and  he 
wanted  me  to  call  over  and  tell  him  how  many  eggs  she  would 
lay  her  first  laying  year.  She  had  been  laying  two  months  and 
he  was  keeping  her  record.  I  went  with  him,  tested  the  hen 
and  told  him  she  might  lay  250  eggs,  but  I  did  not  think  that 
any  of  them  would  hatch.  After  her  first  laying  year  was  up 
he  showed  me  her  record.  She  had  laid  258  eggs  and  al- 
though he  had  a  good  Barred  Rock  cock  bird  with  her  and  had 
set  a  number  of  settings  under  hens  he  failed  to  hatch  a  single 
chick.  I  could  cite  a  great  number  of  such  cases. 

In  the  first  of  these  cases  the  fault  wfes  with  the  male  bird. 
In  the  last  case  the  fault  was  with  the  hen.  In  both  cases  the 
trouble  was  caused  by  a  lack  of  Prepotency  (amativeness) 
and  not  through  any  defect  in  the  anatomy  of  the  birds.  Every- 
thing in  the  universe  is  governed  by  certain  immutable  laws. 
If  we  understand  these  laws  and  can  discover  a  way  to  control 
them  we  may  be  able  to  use  them  to  our  advantage.  Does  the 
reader  ever  stop  to  consider  these  matters?  What  in  your 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN.  65 

opinion  is  the  greatest  c'.-ort  of  nature?  The  writer  things  it 
is  the  ^flFort  to  reproduce  the  species  in  all  their  different  forms 
of  a,_  .,ute  and  inanimate  life.  If  the  case  was  otherwise  this 
earth  would  be  barren  of  grass  and  shrubs,  of  flowers,  and 
fruits  and  of  every  living,  moving  thing  on  land  and  in  the 
sea  What  a  desolate  old  world  this  would  be  with  only  bare 
dirt  and  rocks  and  water.  And  when  we  consider  what  a  won- 
der/ul  thing  life  is  can  we  doubt  that  nature  has  made  some 
extraordinary  provisions  for  controlling  its  inception.  In  the 
wild  state  the  survival  of  the  fittest  prevented  degeneracy  of 
the  species  but  under  domestication  birds  cannot  follow  their 
instincts.  And  their  owners  should  be  familiar  with  nature's 
laws  in  order  to  be  able  to  breed  intelligently. 

When  the  writer  was  twelve  years  of  age  he  took  up  the 
study  of  human  nature  and  later  had  help  from  that  great 
teacher,  Prof.  O.  S.  Fowler.  Years  of  practice  in  dissecting 
and  in  anatomy  and  in  the  study  of  the  skulls  of  animals  and 
birds  gave  me  the  opportunity  to  study  the  construction  of  the 
different  skulls,  and  classify  them  as  to  the  known  habits  of  the 
birds  or  animals  under  consideration.  The  knowledge  gained 
in  this  way  was  of  inestimable  value  in  later  research  in  the 
selection  and  breeding  of  poultry.  I  am  positive  that  without 
this  early  training  I  never  could  have  accomplished  what  I 
have. 

After  raising  my  first  lot  of  Leghorns  in  1869  I  decided  to 
disposed  of  all  breeds  but  the  Leghorns  and  Light  Brahmas.  I 
said  I  would  raise  Leghorns  for  eggs  and  Brahmas  for  meat  Up 
to  that  time  I  had  not  paid  much  attention  to  the  individual 
laying  qualities  of  the  birds.  Experience  had  taught  me  that 
the  Light  Brahma  when  fed  right  and  of  the  right  age  made  a 
delicious  table  fowl  and  I  was  led  to  believe  the  Leghorns 
were  all  great  layers.  That  was  a  good  many  years  ago.  And 
we  have  made  wonderful  discoveries  and  progress  in  science 
and  the  arts  since  that  time.  The  reader  can  imagine  my  sur- 
prise when  I  found  by  experience  that  some  of  my  leghorns 
laid  very  few  eggs  and  laid  them  only  in  the  spring  months. 
Others  laid  large  numbers  and  laid  late  in  the  fall  and  early 
winter.  In  those  days  we  had  no  cold  storage  plants  and  while 
eggs  were  very  cheap  in  the  summer,  they  were  very  dear  in 
the  winter  and  I  decided  to  experiment  writh  my  Leghorns 
with  a  view  to  getting  more  eggs  in  the  winter.  After  a  few 
years  of  study  and  experiment  I  mated  the  best  egg  type  birds 


66  THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 

and  from  some  pens  got  good  results  from  other  pens  not  so 
igood,  and  from  still  others  very  poor  results.  My  previous 
studies  in  anatomy  had  enabled  me  to  select  the  matings  from 
birds  that  were  all  of  the  same  type,  and  I  expected  to  raise 
a  lot  of  poultry  that  would  be  duplicates  of  their  parents  as 
iar  as  their  egg-laying  qualities  were  concerned.  But  after 
•numerous  experiments  in  mating  the  180  egg  type  cock  bird 
with  180  egg  type  hens  I  found  I  could  not  depend  on  getting 
.definite  results. 

Some  are  born  rich  some  are  born  handsome,  and     some 
are  born  lucky.     The  writer  was  born  with  none  of  these  gifts 
t>ut  with  a  combination  of  faculties  that  compelled  to     inven- 
tion, to  wander    and  toil    and    delve    in    the    fields,     the    by- 
ways, and  the  mines  of  the  mysterious.    These  researches  with 
the  aid  received  by  studying  the  pioneers  in  the  same  lines  of 
investigation  led  to  the  discovery  as  the  writer  thinks  of  the 
fundamental  principle  that  underlies   the   reproduction  of  the 
species.     After  a  number  of  matings  that  were  more  or  less 
discouraging  failures  I  decided  to  look  to  the  brain  of  the  bird 
as  the  seat  of  the  cause  of  a  great  many  of  the  variations  be- 
tween the  characteristics  of  the  offspring  and  those     of     the 
parents.     I  had  previously  demonstrated  by  experiment  that 
environment  had  an  influence  on  the  shaping  of  the  skull  of 
the  birds.     By  focusing  on  this  subject  the  skull  knowledge  I 
foad  gained  in  the  previous  nine  years  I  was  led  to  think  that 
the  brain  governed  most  of  the  functions  of  the  body,  and  if 
-so  why  not  the  reproductive  function?  I  reasoned  that     as     I 
ft  ad  mated  up  several  pens  of  the  same  type  of  hens  with  the 
same  type  of  male  birds  and  that  as  there  was  no  difference  in 
their  temperaments  that  the  hens  all  looked  alike  all  weighed 
alike,  and  were  ah  in  the  same  condition  or  in     other     words 
they  were  all  m  p'jifect  condition,  (to  be  more     exoTici:     ihc 
hens  were  tivee  hngtis  abdomen,  pelvic  bone  1-15  of  an  inch 
thick  all  hens  were  in  good  condition,  the  cock  bn  "!-,  were  t\vo 
fingers  abdomen,  in  iionric1]  condition  and  pelvic  bunes  1-16  '<f 
an  inch    thick,  all  hens  were  alike  and  all  cock  birds  were  alike 
and  all  were  about  a  year  old) — that  there  must  be  something 
apart  from  the  anatomy  and  physiology  of  the  hen  that  gov- 
erned or  in  some  measure  controlled  the  reproductive     func- 
tions.    As  I  had  exhausted  all  my  resources  in  the  above  lines 
J  was  very  reluctantly  obliged  to  enter  a     new    field     of     re- 
search-—the  field  of  Phrenology.     I  killed  the  cock  birds     that 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 


61 


h"d  given  us  the  best  results,  boiled  their  skulls  until  free  of 
flesh  and  found  them  as  in  No  1,  Plate  35.  The  skulls  of  the. 
cock  birds  that  gave  the  next  best  results  were  like  No.  2,. 
Plate  35,  and  the  skulls  of  the  cock  birds  that  ^ave  the  poor- 


Plate  35. — Three  Degrees  of  Amativeness.    (Otherwise  Called  Prepotency.) 


est  results  were  like  No.  3,  Plate  35.  The  arrows  4-5  and  6, 
show  the  base  of  the  brain  but  the  arrow  at  No.  6  should  be 
1-16  of  an  inch  further  back  to  be  correct.  And  right  here  is 
where  we  were  on  the  point  of  the  second  great 
secret  in  breeding  that  would  verify  the  saying  that 
like  begets  like.  T/he  first  discovery  was,  that  if  we 
wished  to  raise  pullets  that  would  be  good  layers  we  would 
have  to  mate  good  laying  hens  with  the  same  type  of  male 
bird  and  not  with  the  meat  type,  that  is  the  male  birds  would 
have  to  be  of  the  same  temperament,  of  the  same  anatomy 
and  of  the  same  physiology  as  the  hen.  I  found  that  if  I  had  a 
hen  that  laid  180  eggs  by  the  trap-nest  and  if  I  wanted  to 
raise  a  lot  of  pullets  that  would  average  180  eggs  1  could  not 
depend  on  the  trap  nest  to  aid  me  any  farther  than  to  tell  me 


68  THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 

the  number  of  eggs  a  hen  laid,  what  particular  eggs  she  laid, 
and  the  progeny  of  each  hen,  both  male  and  female.  I  also 
found  great  variations  in  type  in  the  mature  cockerels  from 
each  individual  hen,  which  we  considered  was  due  to  the  dif- 
ference in  type  of  the  male  bird  and  the  difference  in  vitality 
of  one  or  both  birds  at  different  times  during  the  breeding 
season,  sometimes  the  hen  at  other  times  the  cock  bird  trans- 
mitting their  characteristics.  When  I  was  assured  of  this 
through  numerous  experiments  we  reasoned  that  our  failures 
were  because  the  male  birds  were  of  a  different  type  from  the 
hens,  and  when  I  had  demonstrated  that  the  male  birds  were 
of  a  different  physiology  by  practice  and  scientific  measures 
and  mated  accordingly  I  flattered  myself  with  the  assurance 
that  I  had  discovered  all  that  was  necessary  in  order  to  breed 
poultry  intelligently,  but  after  more  experiments  I  was  not 
wholly  satisfied  with  results;  and  as  I  had  adopted  the  motto, 
"Like  begets  like"  I  reasoned  that  although  the  birds  we  had 
mated  were  alike  as  far  as  we  could  see,  the  remaining  differ- 
ence must  be  some  place  where  I  had  failed  to  look  for  it.  My 
knowledge  of  the  different  variations  in  form  of  the  skulls  of 
animals  and  birds  of  the  same  breed  together  with  the  knowl- 
edge I  possessed  of  human  skulls  led  me  to  investigate  the 
head  as  the  only  remaining  factor  in  the  problem.  When  I  re- 
duced this  proposition  to  a  method  and  when  I  was  able  to 
measure  its  potentiality,  then  I  assembled  the  hens  and  cock 
birds,  mating  the  180  egg  type  hens  and  the  180  egg  type 
cock  bird  each  bird  with  the  same  degree  of  prepotency.  Then 
and  not  until  then  had  I  ever  knowingly  mated  like  to  like. 
For  years,  like  many  others,  I  thought  I  had  mated  males 
to  like  females  but  I  was  mistaken.  And  here  is  where 
I  discovered  my  second  great  secret.  After  this  I  mated 
like  to  like  more  intelligntly  and  the  results  were  more  satis 
factory.  I  consider  the  selecting  of  the  male  birds  for  mat- 
ing along  anatomical  and  Physiological  lines  together  with 
the  proper  understanding  and  use  of  the  faculty  that  governs 
the  reproductive  function  as  the  greatest  discoveries  ever 
made  in  the  poultry  industry.  The  reader  may  think  there  is 
very  little  difference  in  the  skulls  on  Plate  35.  If  you  add  an 
inch  to  the  length  of  a  man's  legs  it  does  not  seem  to  make 
much  difference  in  his  height  but  if  you  add  an  inch  to  the  end 
of  his  nose  it  would  make  a  great  difference  to  his  looks.  I 
found  this  expansion  on  the  back  of  the  skull  corresponded  to 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN.  69 

tLj  organ  of  amativeness  in  the  human  family.  I  found  that 
when  it  was  large  in  both  male  and  female  the  parents  pos- 
sessed the  ability  to  transmit  their  PREDOMINATING 
CHARACTERISTICS  to  their  offspring.  If  the  parents  were 
fancy  birds  their  progeny  would  excel,  in  some  cases,  their 
parents  in  feather,  vigor  and  other  good  qualities.  If  the  par- 
ents were  in  the  egg  type,  some  of  the  chicks  would  be  as 
good  and  some  better  layers,  and  more  vigorous  than  the 
parents.  If  of  the  meat  type  the  progeny  would  be  of  a  strong- 
er constitution,  of  a  quicker  growth  and  assimilate  their  food 
better.  In  a  word"  if  both  parents  have  this  organ  (called  pre- 
potency by  some)  large  the  chicks  will  be  more  likely  to  be 
equal  to,  and  some  will  excel,  their  parents  along  the  lines  in 
which  the  parents  predominate..  If  the  parents  have  the  organ 
small,  the  chicks  will  not  be  so  good  as  the  parent  stock,  but 
will  degenerate  along  the  lines  that  the  parents  excel  in.  If 
a  hen  is  a  200  egg  type,  and  she  has  this  organ  small  she  will 
be  just  as  valuable  as  an  egg  producer  as  if  she  had  the  organ 
large,  but  she  will  be  of  no  value  as  a  breeder.  She  will  be  an 
old  maid  from  choice,  and  her  eggs  will  not  be  fertile,  if  she 
has  the  organ  small  enough.  If  the  male  bird  has  it  small  his 
eggs  will  not  hatch  well ;  and  if  small  enough  they  will  not 
hatch  at  all.  I  have  found  a  few  cases  where  the  cock  bird  had 
the  organ  of  (Amativeness)  prepotency  large  and  failed  to 
fertilize  the  eggs,  but  the  cases  are.  very  rare  and  I  attribute  it 
to  weakened  or  diseased  nerves;  as  for  instance  the  nerves  of 
the  teeth  or  sciatic  nerve  in  the  human  being. 


Figure  36. — Holding  Hen  Ready  to  Put  in  Sack. 


70 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN 


Fig.  36  shows  how  to  hold  a  hen  before  putting  her  in  a 
sack  to  measure  this  organ. 


Figure  37. — Holding   Legs   With   Right  Hand  and   Gathering   Sack  Around 

Legs  With  Left  Hand. 

Fig.  37  shows  how  to  put  her  in  the  sack,  holding  legs  with 
right  hand,  with  back  of  hen  against  bottom  of  sack,  and  gath- 
ering sack  around  legs  with  left  hand. 


Figure   38. — Tying  Sack  Around   Legs    So-     Hen     Cannot     Move     While 
Examining     Her     For     Prepotency. 

Fig.  38  shows  tying  sack  around  legs  so  that  she  cannot 
move  while  examining  her  for  prepotency.  (Cut  a  little  off  of 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN.  71 

the  corner  of  the  sack,  just  enough  to  get  her  head  through. 
Hen  in  cut  38  is  too  far  out  of  the  sack.) 

The  best  way  for  a  beginner  to  learn  how  to  handle  a  hen 
for  prepotency  is  to  select  a  hen  you  wish  for  the  table.  Cut 
the  corner  off  of  a  gunny  sack,  hold  her  as  in  cut  36,  put>  your 
hen  in  sack  and  tie  her  as  in  Fig.  37  and  38,  then  make  a  hook 
of  wire  or  a  hair  pin,  attach  it  to  a  string  with  small  weight  or 
stone,  hang  hen  up  against  barn  or  shed  head  down,  back 
against  building,  take  long-bladed  pocket  or  other  knife  with 
sharp  point,  insert  in  hen's  mouth  and  draw  across  the  roof  of 
the  mouth  at  the  back  of  the  brain,  at  the  junction  of  the  neck, 
severing  the  blood  veins,  then  immediately  force  the  knife 
through  the  roof  of  the  mouth  into  the  brain.  The  knife 
should  be  forced  well  into  the  brain,  which  will  sever  the 
nerves  and  the  bird  will  feel  no  pain;  then  insert  hook  in  the 
nostril  and  the  weight  will  hold  the  neck  straight.  The  hen 
should  bleed  freely.  After  bleeding  has  stopped  clean  mouth 
and  surrounding  parts  of  blood  and  place  hen  in  some  conven- 
ient place  as  in  Fig.  39.  The  thumb  nail  on  the  left  hand  and 
nail  on  the  forefinger  of  the  right  hand  should  be  longer  than 
the  thumb  and  finger  so  the  flesh  on  end  of  thumb  and  finger 
will  not  prevent  the  nail  from  entering  the  slight  depression 
between  the  skull  and  neck. 

We  will  suppose  the  reader  has  handled  the  hen  as  suggest- 
ed above.  Lay  the  dead  hen  as  in  Fig.  39,  take  hold  of  comb  or 
head  and  pull  neck  up  with  right  hand  and  while  holding  head 
up  to  neck  will  be  stretched  out  turn  the  head  down  with  right 
hand  so  the  back  of  the  head  will  point  up  and  beak  will  point 
down  as  much  as  possible.  This  will  make  the  projection  of 
the  brain  No.  1,  Plate  35  appear  more  prominent  so  it  will  be 
easier  to  locate  it;  then  draw  ball  of  thumb  of  left  hand  down 
on  head  until  you  feel  back  of  skull ;  when  you  feel  back  of 
skull  with  ball  of  thumb  then  turn  first  joint  of  thumb  down 
until  thumb  nail  fits  in  between  end  of  skull  and  neck  and  well 
up  against  base  of  brain;  then  while  holding  left  hand  and 
thumb  as  in  Fig.  39  put  forefinger  of  right  hand  at  base  of 
brain  behind  the  ear  as  in  Fig.  39  between  the  neck  and  the 
skull  and  against  the  skull  behind  the  ear  as  in  Fig.  39.  The 
ear  can  be  readily  discovered  by  lifting  up  the  hairy  covering 
that  covers  it.  The  thumb  nail  must  be  held  perfectly  straight 
across  the  neck  as  in  the  cut,  and  not  sideways;  and  the  fore- 


72 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEX. 


finger  must  be  held  perfectly  at  right  angles  with  the  thumbr 
or  the  length  of  projection  at  arrow  1.  plate  35,  from  the  base 
of  the  brain  arrow  4,  Plate  35  cannot  be  measured  accurately. 
The  reader  will  notice  that  my  thumb  nail  is  ahead  of  my 
forefinger  nail  in  cut  39.  This  indicates  that  this  hen  is  whol- 


Figure  39.— Showing  Thumb  %  of  an  inch  Ahead  of  Forefinger  Indicating 
Hen  is  Totally  Lacking  in  Prepotency. 


Figure  40. — Thumb  Even  With  Forefinger  Indicating  She  Has 
Prepotency  Small. 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 


73 


ly  lacking  in  the  ability  to  transmit  any  redeeming  qualities  to 
her  offspring,  also  that  she  has  no  desire  for  offspring. 
If  this  was  a  male  bird  the  eggs  from  his  matings  would  be 
infertile.  Fig.  40,  shows  thumb  on  line  with  forefinger.  Mat- 


iFigui  3  -11. — Showing  Thumb  %  of  an  Inch     Behind    Forefinger     Indicating 
Hen  Has  Prepotency  Full. 


-Figure  42. — Showing  Thumb  %  Inch  Behind     Forefinger     indicating     Hen 

Has  Prepotency  Large. 


74 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 


ings  from  this  type  of  head  would  not  produce  very  fertile 
eggs,  and  the  progeny  would  deteriorate  each  year  if  they 
were  bred  from  stock  with  heads  like  this.  If  the  parents  were 
200  egg  type,  their  egg  yield  and  vitality  would  be  reduced 
each  generation  of  breeding.  If  they  were  of  the  beef  type 
their  vitality  and  ability  to  produce  flesh  economically  would 
diminish  with  each  generation.  If  they  were  a  fancy  type  the 
breeder  would  be  up  aganst  a  stone  wall  of  discouraging  ex- 
periences. 


Figure  43. — Showing  How  to  Hold  Bird  Between  Knees  After  You  Become 
Proficient  in  Testing  Head  While  Bird  Is  In  Sack. 


I  would  advise  the  reader  to  take  specilal  notice  of  figure 
43,  as  this  cut  shows  the  method  of  determining  prepotency 
plainer  than  any  of  the  others. 

Cut  No.  41  shows  a  hen  with  prepotency  full,  i.  e.,  thumb  1-8 
of  an  inch  behind  forefinger.  Sometimes  a  poultryman  will  be 
lucky  enough  to  mate  up  a  lot  of  pens  of  the  right  type  for  his 
purpose  with  heads  like  Nos.  41,  42,  and  43.  His 
business  prospers  and  his  neighbors  call  him  lucky. 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN.  75 

While  others  are  going  bankrupt  raising  poultry  he  holds 
his  own  and  is  making  a  good  living.  Nos.  42  and 
43  shows  a  hen  with  an  excellent  head  for  breeding  pur- 
poses. The  thumb  in  this  case  is  one  fourth  of  an  inch  behind 
the  fore  finger.  If  this  hen  is  mated  to  a  male  bird  of  the 
same  type  and  prepotency  her  eggs  will  be  very  fertile  and  a 
large  number  of  the  progeny  will  be  equal  to  and  some  will 
excel  the  parent  stock  in  the  lines  that  predominate  in  the 
parents.  By  selecting  these  few  specimens  each  season  for 
breeding,  it  is  possible  to  breed  a  highly  valuable  type  in  the 
course  of  time.  Cut  No.  43  shows  how  to  hold  bird  between 
knees  after  you  become  proficient  in  testing  head  while  bird 
is  in  sack. 


76  THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 

CHAPTER    X. 
TESTING  HENS  ON     A     LARGE     SCALE     USING 

CHARTS  44  AND  45. 

I  will  describe  in  this  chapter  how  I  cull  hens  when  we 
have  large  numbers  of  them  as  we  have  in  poultry  plants  in 
California.  I  shall  take  it  for  granted  that  the  reader  has  no 
method  of  selecting  the  good  from  the  poor  layers,  except, 
perhaps,  the  "Walter  Hogan  System,"  or  some  of  its  pirated 
forms  that  are  now  used  extensively  in  all  parts  of  the  civiliz- 
ed world,  and  which  is  based  on  the  theory  that  the  value  of 
a  hen  as  an  egg  producer  depends  on  the  relative  distance 
apart  of  her  Pelvic  Bones  and  the  thinness  of  same.  We  will 
suppose  the  reader  has  three  hundred  hens,  one  lot  is  about 
a  year  and  four  months  old,  another  lot  is  about  two  years  and 
four  months  old,  and  another  lot  is  about  three  years  and  four 
months  old.  Each  lot  has  been  kept  in  separate  yards,  so 
there  can  be  no  mistake  in  regard  to  their  ages,  or  they  have 
been  toe  punched  or  otherwise  marked.  Wre  notice  more  or 
less  feathers  flying  around  the  yard,  thus  indicating  the  season 
of  the  year  when  moulting  is  near  at  hand.  Everything  else  be- 
ing equal  the  poorest  hen  moults  first,  and  if  she  is  a  very  poor 
layer,  she  will  stop  laying  when  she  begins  to  moult,  and  will 
not  lay  again  until  the  crows  lay  in  the  spring.  We  consider  it 
is  about  time  to  cull  out  the  poor  layers  and  send  them  to  mar- 
ket. The  next  thing  that  comes  to  mind  is  the  question, 
"\Vhat  is  a  poor  layer?"  That  all  depends  on  the  price  you 
get  for  the  eggs,  the  price  of  feed,  houses,  etc.  I  raised  poul- 
try in  Todd  Co.,  Minn.,  in  1886  and  1887,  and  sold  good  lumber 
at  the  saw  mill  for  $5.00  per  1000  feet.  Wheat  was  about  a 
cent  per  pound  and  wheat  screenings  for  chicken  feed  could  be 
had  for  the  hauling.  It  is  very  evident  that  a  poorer  class  of 
layers  might  have  been  kept  at  a  greater  profit  when  supplies 
were  at  that  low  price,  than  can  be  profitably  kept  when  sup- 
plies are  as  high  priced  as  they  are  at  the  present  time  of  writ- 
ing, June  1913.  So  the  reader  can  see  that  the  matter  of  the 
profitable  hen  is  a  local  matter.  At  this  waiting  you  can  buy 
nearly  two  bushels  of  wheat  in  some  parts  of  Minnesota  for 
what  you  will  pay  for  one  in  California.  I  was  told  a  few  days 
ago  that  you  could  buy  twice  as  much  oats  at  the  present  time 
in  Minnesota  as  you  can  in  California  for  the  same  money. 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 


77 


When  studying  chart  44  and  45,  we  see  there  are  certain  fig- 
ures lined  off  from  the  rest.  This  is  for  the  purpose  of  aiding 
the  reader  at  a  certain  time  each  year  to  select  the  poor  lay- 
ers from  the  good  ones  without  using  the  charts,  thereby  sav- 
ing the  time  necessary  to  look  over  the  chart  and  classify  each 
hen. 

The  charts  1,  2,  3,  4,  5,  and  6  as  the  reader  will  learn  by 
bearing  in  mind  the  following  instructions,  need  be  used  only 
to  determine  the  laying  score  of  the  individual  hen. 

The  first  figure  underlined  in  chart  44  is  in  the  column  indi- 
cating three  fingers  abdomen  from  one-sixteenth  pelvic  bone  to 


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THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 


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We  will  make  a  copy  of  charts  44  and  45  on  a  piece  of 
white  card  board,  and  hang  them  up  in  a  convenient  place  in 
the  yard  where  the  sixteen-months  old  hens  are  penned.  We 
will  suppose  that  the  hens  are  all  closed  in  the  house  or  houses. 
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THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN.  79> 

in  same  as  in  Fig.  1.  When  there  are  enough  hens  in  the 
coop,  shut  down  slide  door  that  holds  them  in.  In  this  case  it 
is  necessary  to  keep  only  four  figures  in  mind,  any  four  you 
prefer  will  do.  Here  in  California  I  use  Figs.  5-7-9-11,  for  the 
hens  sixteen-months  old.  Figs.  3-5-7-9  for  the  hens  twenty- 
eight-months  old,  and  Figs.  1-3-5-7,  for  hens  forty-months  old. 
We  keep  large  numbers  of  hens,  and  in  this  way  we  can  sort 
out  the  market  hens  each  year  in  a  short  time,  as  we  do  not 
have  to  stop  and  figure  out  the  percentage  of  loss  for  each 
year  of  age,  as  these  figures  come  near  enough  to  suit  our 
purpose.  If  they  do  not  suit  the  local  market  the  reader  can 
use  any  figures  that  will 

Now  take  a  hen  out  of  the  catching  coop  as  in  Fig.  3,  and 
hold  her  as  near  as  possible  as  in  Fig.  5.  Place  hand  on  abdo- 
men. She  may  be  one  finger  abdomen  in  good  condition,  her 
pelvic  bone  may  be  one-sixteenth  of  an  inch  thick,  her  capac- 
ity is  three  dozen  eggs  her  first  laying  year.  She  has  laid  all 
these  eggs,  and  will  lay  no  more  until  the  next  spring,  when' 
the  crows  lay  and  eggs  are  cheap.  So  we  decide  to  put  this  liner*1 
in  the  shipping  crate,  to  be  sent  to  market.  We  take  another 
hen  from  the  catching  coop,  and  go  through  the  same  process. 
She  may  be  a  two  fingered  abdomen  hen  in  good  condition, 
her  pelvic  bones  one-sixteenth  of  an  inch  thick.  This  indicates 
a  hen  that  may  lay  eight  dozen  eggs  her  first  laying  year.  As 
a  rule  when  hens  are  so  fed  and  cared  for  they  will  lay  their 
maximum  number  of  eggs  their  first  laying  year.  They  will 
as  a  rule  lay  about  15  per  cent  less  each  year  after,  provided^ 
they  arc  given  the  same  care  and  feed.  In  this  case  the  hen' 
in  hand  might  lay  about  eighty-five  eggs.  If  you  think  that  will' 
pay  you  let  the  hen  drop  out  of  your  hands  into  the  yard 
where  you  are  standing.  If  you  think  it  will  not  pay  to  keep 
her,  put  her  in  the  shipping  crate  for  the  market.  The  next 
lien  may  be  two  fingers  abdomen,  one  finger  out  of  condition 
as  in  Fig.  20,  with  pelvic  bones  one-fourth  of  an  inch  thick.  If 
this  hen's  comb  and  wattles  are  red  and  the  hen  is  strong  and 
active,  being  one  finger  out  of  condition  indicates  that  she  is 
not  being  properly  cared  for,  either  in  feed  or  environment,  or 
both.  In  the  condition  she  is  in  at  present,  if  continued  the 
whole  year,  she  might  lay  about  sixty-nine  eggs,  while  if  kept 
in  normal  condition  she  might  lay  138  eggs.  (See  chart  No.  3.) 
So  we  call  her  a  good  hen  and  drop  her. 


80  THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 

The  next  hen  may  be  a  three  finger  abdomen,  five-six- 
teenths pelvic  bone,  and  in  normal  condition.  If  this  hen  was 
in  Petaluma  we  would  drop  her  as  she  would  be  a  paying  hen. 

The  next  hen  may  be  three  fingers  abdomen  in  normal 
condition  as  in  Fig.  19,  and  pelvic  bone  three-eights  of  an  inch 
thick.  We  put  this  hen  in  the  shipping  crate  for  market  as  it 
will  not  pay  to  keep  her  any  longer  if  in  Petaluma.  She  will 
not  pay  for  her  board  after  this  time  and  leave  enough  profit 

The  next  hen  may  be  four  fingers  abdomen  in  normal 
condition,  and  seven-sixteenths  of  an  inch  pelvic  bone.  She  be- 
ing a  130  egg  type  hen  it  will  pay  to  keep  her  another  year  so 
we  drop  her.  The  next  hen  may  be  four  fingers  abdomen  in  nor- 
mal condition,  and  one-half  inch  pelvic  bones.  This  hen  will  lay 
approximately  115  eggs  her  first  laying  year,  but  not  enough 
her  second  year.  So  we  put  her  in  the  shipping  crate  for  mar- 
ket. 

The  next  hen  may  be  a  five  fingers  abdomen  hen  and  in 
good  condition,  nine-sixteenths  pelvic  bone.  She  is  130  egg 
type  hen  so  we  drop  her. 

The  ;,ext  hen  is  five  fingers  abdomen  in  normal  condi- 
tion, and  five-eights  of  an  inch  pelvic  bones.  This  is  a  115  egg 
type  hen  so  we  put  her  in  the  shipping  crate. 

The  next  hen  may  be  six  fingers  abdomen  in  normal 
condition,  and  eleven-sixteenths  pelvic  bones.  She  will  be  a 
130  egg  type  hen,  so  we  drop  her. 

1  he  next  hen  may  be  six  fingers  abdomen  in  normal  con- 
dition, pelvic  bones  three-fourths  of  an  inch  thick.  She  will  be 
a  115  egg  type  hen  so  we  will  put  her  in  the  shipping  crate. 

The  next  hen  may  be  three  fingers  abdomen  three  fingers 
out  of  condition,  and  one-eighth  of  an  inch  pelvic  bones.  If 
her  comb  and  wattles  are  pale  and  bloodless,  she  is  no  doubt 
diseased  and  should  be  disposed  of,  but  if  her  comb  and  wattles 
are  red,  it  indicates,  as  a  rule,  that  she  is  out  of  condition  on 
account  of  accident  or  lack  of  feed.  In  her  present  condition 
she  scores  166  egg  type.  If  we  get  her  in  one  finger  better 
condition  she  will  measure  four  fingers  abdomen  and  score 
205  egg  lype.  If  we  can  get  her  in  two  finger  better  condition, 
she  will  measure  five  finger  abdomen  and  may  be  three-six- 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN.  81 

-teenths  pelvic,  bones,  on  account  of  becoming  a  little  more 
fleshy,  and  score  220  egg  type  and  if  we  can  get  her  in  three 
fingers  better  rendition,  she  would  then  be  in  normal  condi- 
tion, and  her  pelvic  bones  might  be  three-sixteenths  or  one- 
fourth  of  an  inch  thick,  if  the  latter  she  would  score  235  egg 
type.  (We  will  have  more  to  say  on  the  changing  of  thickness 
of  the  pelvic  bone,  in  la^t  of  chap'.er  18.) 

We  will  continue  r.'.-.'tcting  or  separating  the  good  from 
the  poor  layers,  in  the  same  manner,  keeping  every  hen  for 
another  year  in  the  tVee  finger  abdomen  class  that  is  five- 
sixteenths  of  an  inch  pelvic  bone  and  thinner,  sending  every 
hen  to  market  that  is  over  five-sixteenths  of  an  inch  pelvic 
bone  in  the  t.1  ree  hngrr  abdomen  class,  keeping  every  hen  in 
the  four  finger  abdomen  class  that  is  seven-sixteenths  of  an 
inch  pelvic  bone  and  thinner,  and  sending  every  hen  to  market 
that  is  over  seven- six  teenths  pelvic  bone  in  the  four  finger  ab- 
domen class,  keeping  e\ery  hen  in  the  five  finger  abdomen 
class  that  is  nine-sixteenths  of  an  inch  pelvic  bone  and  thinner, 
and  sending  every  hen  to  market  that  is  over  nine-sixteenths 
•of  an  inch  pelvic  bone  thick,  keeping  every  hen  in  the  six  finger 
abdomen  class  that  is  eleven-sixteenths  of  an  inch  pelvic  bone 
and  thinner,  and  sending  every  hen  to  market  that  is  over 
eleven- sixteenths  of  an  inch  pelvic  bone  thick. 

1  want  to  say  acre  that  there  is  nothing  arbitary  in  regard 
to  the  chart-  44  and  45.  Each  poultryman  can  draw  the  lines 
where  he  ihinks  it  will  best  suit  his  purpose.  A  great  many 
years  of  experimenting  has  led  the  writer  to  believe  these 
charts  answer  the  purpose  very  well. 

We  have  disposed  of  all  the  one  year  and  four-months  old 
hens,  and  will  move  our  outfit  to  the  two  year  and  four-months 
old  hens,  and  arrange  catching  coop  and  charts  as  in  the  first 
case. 

The  first  hen  we  take  from  the  coop  may  be  a  one  finger- 
ed hen  in  good  condition.  All  one  and  two  fingered  hens  in 
good  condition  over  one  year  and  four-months  old,  as  a  rule 
should  be  disposed  of.  There  is  no  profit  in  them  after  they 
have  laid  their  allotted  number  of  egg  their  first  season,  or  in 
other  words,  after  they  commence  to  moult  in  their  first  lay- 
ing year.  So  after  this  we  will  not  consider  them  in  this  con- 
nection. There  is  a  great  difference  in  the  number  of  eggs  a 


82  THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 

flock  of  hens  will  lay  each  year  as  they  grow  older.  Some  wilt 
lose  5  per  cent,  some  10  per  cent,  some  15  per  cent,  and  some 
20  per  cent.  Some  will  not  lay  anything  (This  will  be  ex- 
plained later)  after  their  first  laying  year.  It  depends  alto- 
gether on  the  vitality  of  the  hen  and  how  she  has  been  fed 
and  raised,  and  the  variations  in  the  percentage  of  eggs  laid  by 
exactly  the  same  type  of  hens  will  vary  with  different  poultry 
keepers,  and  also  with  the  same  poultry  keeper,  varying  more 
or  less  in  each  separate  pen  proving  that  environment  has 
more  or  less  to  do  with  egg  production,  all  other  things  as  far 
dS  human  knowledge  is  concerned  being  equal.  Some  people 
who  aie  good  mathematicians,  but  who  are  wholly  ignorant 
of  animal  nature,  look  surprised  when  I  explain  to  them  the 
difference  between  classifying  the  production  of  a  number  of 
like  machines,  with  the  production  of  a  number  of  hens  of  the 
same  score  in  egg  production.  As  a  scientific  proposition  it  is 
impossible  to  write  a  chart  before  hand  that  will  fit  every  case. 
If  we  look  1000  hens  of  any  pronounced  type,  say  100  egg  type 
w!  ich  were  fed,  housed,  and  cared  for  in  exactly  the  same 
manner,  and  one  of  them  laid  five,  ten  or  fifteen  eggs  more  or 
less  some  year  than  the  other  999  hens,  it  would  prove  our 
contention  or  theory,  from  a  scientific  point  of  view.  I  am  .sure 
that  one  hundred  expert  poultrymen  could  take  100  hens  of 
the  same  general  type,  that  would  score  the  same  egg  capacity 
and  would  all  be  in  the  same  condition,  and  each  poultryman 
feed  and  care  for  his  100  birds  for  four  years  the  best  he  knew 
how,  and  very  fewr  of  them  would  agree  on  a  set  of  figures  that 
would  give  the  percentage  of  decrease  in  egg  production  each 
year.  The  one  who  fed  the  heaviest  and  produced  the  most 
eggs,  would  have  the  largest  percentage  of  decrease,  while  the 
ones  who  bred  for  hatching  eggs,  and  did  not  force  their  hens 
with  condiments  and  stimulants,  would  get  the  least  number 
of  eggs  and  the  lowest  percentage  of  decrease,  not  figuring  the 
percentage  of  decrease  from  the  number  of  eggs  actually  laid 
but  from  what  the  hen  would  lay  each  year. 

The  writer  does  not  claim  that  he  has  dicovered  a  system 
that  will  infallibly  give  results  just  as  he  has  written  them. 
No  poultry  man  needs  to  be  told  this,  but  for  the  benefit  of 
the  amateurs  I  have  inserted  the  above  caution.  The  writer 
claims  by  years  of  investigation  and  practice  to  have  formu- 
lated a  poultry  code  as  contained  in  this  book,  that  is  com- 
mercially the  approximation  of  perfection. 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN.  83 

We  will  return  to  our  two  year  old  hens.  We  said  all  one 
and  two  fingered  hens  should  be  sold,  and  we  will  consider 
them  no  more  than  to  put  them  in  the  market  crates  when  we 
find  one.  The  reader  will  remember  that  in  selecting  the  six- 
teen-months  old  hens  we  retained  only  those  in  the  three,  four, 
five  and  six  finger  abdomen  column,  that  measured  five,  seven, 
nine  and  eleven-sixteenths  of  an  inch  or  less,  and  everything 
below  these  lines  went  to  market.  In  the  show  room  when  the 
writer  judges  utility  birds  we  use  the  charts  so  as  to  score  each 
bird  according  to  its  capacity  for  egg  production,  but  when  we 
cull  the  poultry  on  commercial  plants,  in  order  to  save  the 
time  of  looking  on  the  charts  we  keep  in  mind  only  four  fig- 
ures, for  the  hens  of  any  age  that  we  are  examining.  For  hens 
about  sixteen-months  old  we  use  the  figures  five,  seven,  nine, 
eleven.  For  hens  with  three  fingers  abdomen  we  use  the  fig- 
ures five-sixteenths;  for  four  fingers  abdomen  seven-sixteen- 
ths; for  five  fingers  abdomen,  nine-sixteenths;  and  for  six 
fingers  abdomen,  eleven-sixteenths.  All  under  three  fingers 
abdomen  goes  to  the  market  and  all  under  the  lines  go  also. 

For  the  two  year  and  four-months  old  hens,  we  keep  in 
mind  the  following  figures,  three,  five,  seven,  nine.  For  the 
three  fingers  abdomen  hen  three-sixteenths  pelvic  bone;  four 
finger  abdomen  hen,  five-sixteenths  pelvic  bone;  five  finger 
abdomen  hen,  seven-sixteenths  pelvic  bone,  and  six  finger  ab- 
domen hen,  nine-sixteenths  pelvic  bone.  Everything  below 
these  figures  goes  to  market,  also  all  one  and  two  fingered  ab- 
domen birds  there  may  be  in  the  lot. 

We  now  go  to  the  hens  that  are  three  years  and  four- 
months  old.  Any  one  and  two  fingered  abdomen  birds  that  we 
may  find  go  to  market,  and  all  the  three  fingered  abdomen 
birds  below  one-sixteenth  pelvic  bones.  For  the  three  years 
and  four-months  old  birds  we  bear  in  mind  one,  three,  five, 
seven.  Three  fingers  abdomen  hen,  one-sixteenth  pelvic  bones; 
four  fingers  abdomen  hen,  three-sixteenths  pelvic  bones;  five 
fingers  abdomen  hen,  five-sixteenths  pelvic  bones,  and  six  fin- 
gers abdomen  hen,  seven-sixteenths  pelvic  bones.  All  below 
these  lines  go  to  market. 

If  the  reader  has  some  good  hens  that  he  wishes  to  breed 
from,  he  can  use  the  Figs.  1,  3,  5. 

The  fourth  year  when  he  wishes  to  select  from  the  four, 


84  THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 

five  and  six  fingered  abdomen  hens  it  will  be  four  fingers  abdo- 
men, one-sixteenth  pelvic  bones;  five  fingers  abdomen, 
three-sixteenths  pelvic  bones;  and  six  fingers  abdomen  five- 
sixteenths  pelvic  bones.  Very  few  will  want  to  keep  hens  as 
long  as  this.  They  will  be  five  years  and  about  four-months 
old  when  you  will  sell  them.  Most  people  here  sell  them  about 
the  time  they  commence  to  moult,  after  they  are  two  years  old, 
but  I  selected  the  hens  used  at  the  California  State  Poultry  Ex- 
periment Sation,  to  test  this  method  as  far  as  the  egg  laying 
qualities  were  concerned,  and  the  hens  1  selected  as  hens  that 
would  pay  at  four  years,  made  a  good  paying  record. 

The  reader  will  understand  that  the  way  we  have  just 
been  selecting  the  paying  hens  is  the  \vay  we  select  when  we 
have  large  numbers.  This  is  the  way  I  selected  sixteen  hun- 
dred hens  in  six  hours  at  the  poultry  farm  of  the  Ukiah  State 
Hospital,  Mendocino  Co.,  Calif.,  and  at  other  State  hospitals 
and  poultry  plants.  We  do  not  have  to  stop  to  figure  out  the 
percentage  of  loss  of  each  bird.  You  can  take  any  combina- 
tion of  figures  you  wish,  as  1-4  in.,  3-8  in.,  1-2  in..  5-8 
in.,  for  sixteen-months  old  birds;  1-16  in.,  3-16  in.,  5-16 
in.,  7-16  in.,  for  twenty-eight  months  old  birds,  you  can 
figure  out  the  percentage  of  loss  each  year,  and  take  a  com- 
bination of  figures  that  will  suit  your  purpose.  You  have 
only  to  carry  four  figures  in  your  mind.  The  percentage  of 
loss  each  year  is  computed  by  good  poultrymen  to  be  from 
10  per  cent  to  20  per  cent  in  egg  production  on  plants  that 
are  run  for  hatching  eggs.  If  you  forced  your  hens  with  an 
excess  of  meat  and  condiments  the  loss  will  be  according  to 
how  you  feed  them,  and  no  one  can  tell  what  it  may  be  but 
yourself.  Some  poultrymen  get  all  there  is  in  a  hen  out  oi 
her  the  first  season  then  sell  her. 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN.  &5 

CHAPTER  XI. 
THE  MALE  BIRD. 

This  is  not  a  treatise  on  cattle  or  horses,  but  we  have 
to  use  them  very  often  to  illustrate  the  matter  in  hand 
Stock  raising  has  been  brought  to  more  of  a  science  than  poul- 
try raising  and  is  well  understood  by  thousands  of  our  pro- 
gressive farmers.  I  have  met  hundreds  of  them  who  could 
describe  to  me  the  points  I  would  have  to  consider  in  selecting 
a  good  paying  butter  fat,  beef  or  milk  proposition,  both  in  dam 
and  sire,  and  while  there  may  be  as  many  poultrymen  who  un- 
derstand the  selection  of  poultry,  both  male  and  female,  for  egg 
and  meat  production,  I  have  failed  to  meet  them,  and  while  I 
was  made  the  butt  of  ridicule  by  the  poultrymen  when  I  issued 
my  first  pamphlet  entitled  the  "Walter  Hogan  System,"  in 
March,  1905,  the  stock  raisers  who  were  interested  in  poultry 
stood  by  me  to  a  man.  The  reason  was  that  the  cattle  men  had 
been  studying  along  the  utility  lines  in  both  sire  and  dam,  in 
order  to  develop  the  milk,  butter  fat,  and  beef  producing  capac- 
ities of  their  cattle.  It  was  a  comparatively  easy  proposition 
for  them.  The  form  of  the  animals  was  plainly  to  be  seen. 
They  were  not  covered  with  a  coat  of  fluff  and  feathers  that  hid 
the  shape  and  form  of  the  subject.  It  was  easy  to  distinguish 
between  the  cat  ham  of  the  butter  fat  type,  and  the  full  deep 
ham  of  the  beef  type.  It  was  no  trouble  to  compare  the  ud- 
ders, milk  veins,  and  wedge  shape  type  of  the  Jersey,  with  the 
full  rounded  build  of  the  Hereford  or  Poled  Angus  . 

On  the  other  hand  the  poultrymen  to  some  extent  were 
deceived  by  the  appearance  of  their  hens.  Take  for  instance  the 
Cochin  and  the  Bantam.  They  would  hold  about  the  same  re- 
lation to  each  other  as  the  lordly  Durham  would  to  the  fine 
bred  Devon,  yet  I  have  found  Bantam  hens  with  as  deep  abdo- 
men as  a  great  Cochin  hen;  and  it  is  my  opinion  that  if  poultry 
were  as  bare  of  feathers  as  cattle  are,  the  poultry  industry 
would  be  as  far  advanced  at  present  as  is  the  cattle  business. 

The  greatest  impediment  to  the  successful  breeder  of 
poultry  has  been  the  inability  to  select  the  male  bird  of  the  re- 
quired type.  The  custom  in  vogue  at  the  present  writing  with 
most  poultrymen  is  to  trap  nest  their  hens  and  raise  cockerels 
from  the  best  layers  as  indicated  by  the  trap  nest.  The  trouble 


86  THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 

with  this  method  is  that  while  the  hen  may  lay  a  large  number 
of  eggs,  she  may  not  have  the  faculty  to  transmit  her  laying 
qualities  to  her  offspring,  and  her  cockerels  may  be  deficient 
in  both  egg-laying  qualities  and  the  ability  to  transmit  what 
good  qualities  they  may  possess  to  their  progeny. 

Again  I  have  seen  a  great  many  cases  where  poultry 
farmers  would  send  away  and  buy  a  lot  of  cockerels.  The  man 
that  raised  and  sold  them  had  no  knowledge  of  how  to  classify 
them,  and  the  man  who  bought  them  knew  he  was  buying 
cockerels  and  that  is  all  he  did  know  about  them.  He  could  not 
be  sure  whether  they  would  increase  his  egg  yield  or  not.  He 
had  to  pay  his  money  and  take  chances.  It  was  nothing  more 
or  less  than  a  gamble.  But  the  clays  of  gambling  in  the  poultry 
business  are  past  for  the  intelligent  progressive  poultryman. 
No  longer  will  he  be  obliged  to  trust  to  luck  or  intuition.  He 
will  be  able  to  select  his  male  birds  with  as  much  assurance  as 
his  hens,  and  instead  of  groping  in  the  dark  he  will  have  the 
satisfaction  of  seeing  and  knowing  just  what  he  is  doing,  by 
bearing  in  mind  the  instructions  in  this  chapter. 

The  reader  will  by  this  time  be  familiar  with  the  different 
types  and  capacities  of  hens,  and  will  not  be  surprised  to  learn 
there  is  a  similar  number  of  variations  in  the  male  birds ;  and  if 
one  wishes  to  produce  a  certain  type  and  capacity  in  a  pullet 
or  cockerel,  he  must  select  the  parent  birds  that  will  produce 
that  type.  We  know  how  to  select  the  hen,  we  will  now  take 
up  the  study  of  how  to  select  the  male  bird. 

We  go  through  the  same  movements  in  selecting  or  test- 
ing the  male  bird  as  we  do  in  selecting  the  hen,  but  we  use  a 
different  set  of  charts.  For  example  it  is  possible  for  a  hen  to 
change  from  six  to  three  fingers  in  abdominal  capacity  within 
a  month,  and  be  healthy  and  active  and  in  another  month  to 
return  back  to  her  original  six  fingers  capacity.  But  it  is  not  so 
with  the  male  bird,  after  he  is  mature.  I  have  tested  male 
birds  at  nine  months  of  age  that  scored  four  fingers  abdomen, 
one-sixteenth  pelvic  bone,  that  did  not  change  for  four  ye^rs 
except  that  their  pelvic  bone  being  one-sixteenth  of  an  inch 
thick  at  nine  months  old,  I  have  found  them  to  be  one  eighth 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN.  87 

of  an  inch  thick  at  eighteen  months  old.  They  had  increased 
in  thickness  of  bone  from  one-sixteenth  to  one-eighth.  These 
Were  egg  type  male  birds.  The  meat  type  will  vary  more  or 
less  in  the  thickness  of  the  pelvic  bones  depending  on  how 
much  flesh  they  put  on  or  lose,  between  the  different  times  of 
examining  them. 

It  will  be  easy  to  distinguish  the  egg  type  cock  bird  from 
the  meat  type  bird.  The  former  has  thin  pelvic  bones  whether 
in  flesh  or  not.  While  the  latter  has  thick  pelvic  bones  with  a 
more  or  less  lump  of  gristle  on  the  end  of  them  whether  he  is 
thin  or  in  good  flesh.  I  have  found  that  in  classifying  the  male 
bird  as  we  have  the  hen  as  to  type  and  capacity  for  a  certain 
egg  yield  it  requires  less  abdominal  capacity  in  the  male  bird 
than  in  the  female.  For  instance,  the  male  bird  that  is  two 
fingers  abdomen  and  one-sixteenth  of  an  inch  pelvic  bone  is 
the  same  type  and  capacity  for  breeding  purposes  as  the  three 
finger  abdomen  hen  one-sixteenth  pelvic  bone.  The  male  of  the 
same  class  as  regards  capacity  does  not  require  as  large  abdo- 
men as  the  female.  This  is  so  self  evident  that  it  would  be  a 
waste  of  time  to  try  to  explain  the  reason  for  it. 

I  have  heard  poultrymen  say  that  the  male  bird  is  half  of 
the  flock.  I  wonder  if  they  stop  to  consider  whether  this  is  so 
or  not.  My  birds  are  wonderful  layers,  and  I  mate  one  male 
bird  to  every  twelve  hens,  and  from  a  breeder's  point  of  view  I 
consider  my  male  birds  a  great  deal  more  than  half  the  flock. 
If  I  mate  100  egg  type  cock  birds  with  200  egg  hens  the 
progeny  may  lay  about  150  eggs,  thus  reducing  my  egg  yield 
about  25  per  cent  in  the  progeny  of  each  of  the  twelve  hens. 
For  this  reason  I  have  given  as  much  thought  to  the  male  bird 
as  I  have  to  the  hen,  and  in  arranging  the  charts  for  the  male 
birds,  have  experienced  a  great  deal  of  difficulty,  as  it  takes 
years  of  time  and  hundreds  of  matings  to  arrive  at  conclusions 
that  would  be  approximately  correct.  In  any  one  case,  as 
everything  else  (type  capacity  and  breed)  being  equal,  care 
and  environment  has  a  dominating  influence  on  the  product 
whether  eggs  or  meat,  consequently  if  a  number  of  investigat- 
ors were  working  on  this  proposition  using  the  same  system 
of  selection  they  could  not  help  but  arrive  at  somewhat  uiffer- 
ent  conclusions,  as  to  figures  but  that  would  not  affect  the 
value  of  the  svstem. 


«8  THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 

MALE  BIRD— CHART  A. 

One  Finger  Abdomen. 

1-16     pelvic  bone 84  egg  type 

1-8       pelvic  bone 75  egg  type 

3-16     pelvic  bone 67  egg  type 

1-4       pelvic  bone 58  egg  type 

5-16     pelvic  bone 50  egg  type 

3-8       pelvic  bone 41   egg  type 

7-16     pelvic  bone 33  egg  type 

1-2       pelvic  bone 24  egg  type 

9-16     pelvic  bone 16  egg  type 

5-8       pelvic  bone    .  .    . .    7  egg  type 

11-16  pelvic  bone 0  egg  type 

MALE  BIRD— CHART  B. 
One  and  One  Half  Finger  Abdomen. 

1-16  pelvic  bone 132  egg  type 

1-8  pelvic  bone 120  egg  type 

3-16  pelvic  bone 109  egg  type 

1-4  pelvic  bone 98  egg  type 

5-16  pelvic  bone 87  egg  type 

3-8  pelvic  bone 75  egg  type 

7-16  pelvic  bone 64  egg  type 

1-2  pelvic  bone 53  egg  type 

9-16  pelvic  bone 42  egg  type 

5-8  pelvic  bone 30  egg  type 

11-16  pelvic  bone 19  egg  type 

3-4  pelvic  bone 8  egg  type 

13-16  pelvic  bone 0  egg  type 

7-8  pelvic  bone 0  egg  type 


MALE  BIRD— CHART  C. 

Two  Fingers  Abdomen. 

1-16     pelvic  bone 180  egg  type 

1-8       pelvic  bone 166  egg  type 

3-16     pelvic  bone 152  egg  type 

1-4       pelvic  bone 138  egg  type 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN  89« 

5-16     pelvic  bone 124  egg  type 

3-8       pelvic  bone 110  egg  type 

7-16     pelvic  bone 96  egg  type 

J -2       pelvic  bone 82  egg  type 

9-16     pelvic  bone 68  egg  type 

5-8       pelvic  bone 54  egg  type 

11-16  pelvic  bone 40  egg  type 

3-4       pelvic  bone 26  egg  type 

13-16  pelvic  bone 12  egg  type 

7-8       pelvic  bone 0  egg  type 

MALE  BIRD— CHART  D. 
Two  and  One  Half  Fingers  Abdomen. 

1-16     pelvic  bone 200  egg  type 

1-8       pelvic  bone 185  egg  type 

3--16     pelvic  bone 171  egg  type 

1-4       pelvic  bone 156  egg  type 

5-16     pelvic  bone 142  egg  type 

3-8       pelvic  bone 127  egg  type 

7-16     pelvic  bone 113  egg  type 

1-2       pelvic  bone 98  egg  type 

9-16     pelvic  bone 84  egg  type 

5-8       pelvic  bone 69  egg  type 

11-16  pelvic  bone 55  egg  type 

3-4       pelvic  bone 40  egg  type 

13-16  pelvic  bone 26  egg  type 

7-8       pelvic  bone 11  egg  type 

15-16  pelvic  bone 0  egg  type 

MALE  BIRD— CHART  E. 
Three  Fingers  Abdomen. 

1-16     pelvic  bone 235  egg  type 

1-8       pelvic  bone 220  egg  type 

3-16     pelvic  bone 205  egg  type 

1-4       pelvic  bone 190  egg  type 

5-16     pelvic  bone 175  egg  type 

3-8       pelvic  bone 160  egg  type 

7-16     pelvic  bone 145  egg  type 

1-2       pelvic  bone 130  egg  type 


90  THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 

9-16     pelvic  bone    .  .    .  .    115  egg  type 

5-8       pelvic  bone 100  egg  type 

11-16  pelvic  bone 85  egg  type 

3-4       pelvic  bone 70  egg  type 

13-16  pelvic  bone 55  egg  type 

7-8       pelvic  bone 40  egg  type 

15-16  pelvic  bone    25  egg  type 

1   in.    pelvic  bone..    .  .-.. 10  egg  type 

17-16  pelvic  bone 0  egg  type 

MALE  BIRD—CHART  F. 

Three  and  One-half  Fingers  Abdomen. 

1-16     pelvic  bone 257  egg  type 

1-8       pelvic  bone 242  egg  type 

3-16     pelvic  bone 227  egg  type 

1-4       pelvic  bone 212  egg  type 

5-16     pelvic  bone 197  egg  type 

3-8       pelvic  bone 182  egg  type 

7-16     pelvic  bone 167  egg  type 

1-2       pelvic  bone 152  egg  type 

9-16     pelvic  bone 137  egg  type 

5-8       pelvic  bone 122  egg  type 

11-16  pelvic  bone 107  egg  type 

3-4       pelvic  bone 92  egg  type 

13-16  pelvic  bone 77  egg  type 

7-8       pelvic  bone 62  egg  type 

15-16  pelvic  bone 47  egg  type 

1   in.    pelvic  bone 32  egg  type 

17-16  pelvic  bone 17  egg  type 

1    1-8  pelvic  bone 0  egg  type 

MALE  BIRD— CHART  G. 
Four  Fingers  Abdomen. 

1-16  pelvic  bone 280  egg  type 

1-8  pelvic  bone 265  egg  type 

3-16  pelvic  bone 250  egg  type 

1-4  pelvic  bone 235  egg  type 

5-16  pelvic  bone 220  egg  type 

3-8  pelvic  bone 205  egg  type 

7-16  pelvic  bone 190  egg  type 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN.  91 

1-2       pelvic  bone 175  egg  type 

9-16     pelvic  bone 160  egg  type 

5-8       pelvic  bone 145  egg  type 

11-16  pelvic  bone 130  egg  type 

3-4       pelvic  bone 115  egg  type 

13-16  pelvic  bone 100  egg  type 

7-8       pelvic  bone 85  egg  type 

15-16  pelvic  bone 70  egg  type 

1   in.    pelvic  bone 55  egg  type 

17-16  pelvic  bone 40  egg  type 

1    1-8  pelvic  bone 25  egg  type 

1  3-16  pelvic  bone 10  egg  type 

1    1-4  pelvic  bone 0  egg  type 

We  consider  the  male  bird  of  so  much  importance  that  ---e 
have  made  seven  charts  for  his  classification,  as  to  egg"  and 
meat  types.  See  charts  A,  B,  C,  D,  E,  F,  and  G..  While 
chart  A  may  not  be  needed,  and  chart  B  used  very  seldom  we 
thought  it  best  to  include  them.  All  old  poultrymen  an<!  stock 
raisers  know  that  so  many  considerations  enter  into  the  breed- 
ing and  raising  of  live  stock  of  all  kinds,  that  it  is  ir.. possible 
to  lay  down  hard  and  fast  rules  that  can  be  depended  upon 
buore  hand  to  bring  definite  results  in  all  parallel  cases.  This 
is  written  as  a  caution  to  beginners,  especially  to  those  whose 
experience  has  been  at  the  desk  or  behind  the  counter. 

Figure  46  shows  a  cock  bird  four  fingers  abdomen  and,  Fig. 
47  Lhows  the  same  bird  one-eighth  pelvic  bone,  makiug  him  a 
265  egg  type  bird. 

The  reader  will  see  by  Figs.  46  and  47,  we  use  the  same 
methods  to  determine  the  egg  value  of  a  male  bird,  as  wi  use 
for  the  hen,  except  that  we  do  not  think  it  advisable  to  take 
the  matter  of  condition  into  consideration,  or  rather  it  is  better 
not  to  lay  down  rules  in  the  matter  as  it  is  very  hard  to  keep 
the  egg  type  birds  in  good  condition.  But  I  try  to  keep  my  cock 
birds  in  good  flesh,  and  not  over  one  finger  out  of  condition  at 
any  time.  There  are  times  before  the  male  birds  are  a  year  old 
and  while  their  bones  are  soft,  that  their  abdomens  will  con- 
tract and  expand,  it  depending  on  whether  they  are  stinted  in 
their  feed  or  whether  they  are  fed  liberally.  Egg  type  cocker- 
els selected  for  breeders  should  have  the  best  care  and  feed 
(see  chapter  on  selecting  cockerels  for  breeding).  In  examin- 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 


Figure  46. — Showing  Four  Finger  Depth  of  Abdomen  of  265  Egg  Cock  Bird. 


Figure  47.— Showing  %  Inch  Pelvic  Bone  of  265  Egg  Cock  Bird. 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 


93 


Figure  48. — Showing  1-16   Pelvic  Bone  of  280  Egg  Type   Hen. 


Figure  49.— Showing  Six  Fingers  Depth  of  Abdomen  of  280  Egg  Type  Hen. 


94 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 


Figure  50. — 280  Egg  Type  Hen  and  265  Egg     Type     Cock     Bird.     Tail     of 

Cock  is  Somewhat  Cramped  for  Want  of  room. 

ing  the  male  birds  for  prepotency,  the  reader  should  select  them 
with  the  greatest  care.  I  cannot  impress  this  on  the  reader 
too  strongly.  They  should  be  as  good  or  better  if  possible  than 
No.  1,  plate  35,  and  do  not  forget  that  the  thumb  nail  on  the 
left  hand  and  the  nail  on  the  forefinger  of  the  right  hand  (re- 
verse the  order  if  left  handed)  must  be  somewhat  longer  than 
the  flesh,  if  you  expect  to  take  correct  measurements. 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN.  95 

CHAPTER  XII. 
SELECTING  THE  COCKERELS  AT  BROILER  AGE. 

I  have  tried  to  impress  on  the  reader  the  importance  of 
the  careful  selection  of  the  male  birds,  and  perhaps  he  is  fully 
alive  to  the  value  of  doing  so.  He  starts  out  at  the  first  op- 
portunity and  visits  all  the  poultry  plants  far  and  near,  with  the 
determination  to  purchase  the  best  male  bird  he  can  find. 
Before  starting  out  he  decides  ha  will  have  nothing  less  than 
200  egg  type.  Imagine  his  disappointment,  when  after  hand- 
ling perhaps  fifty  or  more  he  can  find  nothing  that  will  come 
.any  way  near  the  200  egg  type,  while  if  he  examined  the  same 
number  of  hens  he  will  very  likely  find  at  least  one  or  perhaps 
more  that  will  come  somewhat  near  what  he  is  looking  for. 
Then  he  will  say  that  there  is  no  such  bird  as  the  chart  de- 
scribes as  a  200  egg  type  cock  bird.  T  wish  to  say  here  that  I 
think  I  have  at  least  fifty  male  birds,  at  the  present  writing, 
that  will  scale  from  200  up  according  to  the  charts.  I  have  over 
a  dozen  that  will  scale  from  250  to  265,  and  these  have  all  been 
developed  within  six  years,  from  hens  with  three  fingers  abdo- 
men and  one-fourth  inch  pelvic  bone,  mated  to  cockerels  with 
one  and  one-half  finger  abdomen,  one-sixteenth  inch  pelvic 
bone. 

The  first  season  in  California  we  raised  about  300  cocker- 
els up  to  three  months  of  age,  which  is  within  the  broiler  age 
for  this  section.  We  arranged  our  house  and  catching  coop  as 
in  Figs.  1  and  2,  and  went  through  the  same  movements  that 
we  do  when  testing  the  hens,  except  that  we  do  not  have  to 
-use  all  the  tests  on  each  one  of  the  cockerels  that  we  use  on 
the  hens.  We  hold  the  cockerels  as  in  Figs.  5  and  6,  and  lay 
•our  hand  on  his  abdomen  as  in  Fig.  7.  As  soon  as  we  lay  our 
hand  on  his  abdomen  we  can  feel  instantly  whether  his  pelvic 
•bones  are  straight  like  Fig.  34  or  crooked  like  Fig.  33.  If  his 
pelvic  bones  are  like  Fig.  33,  we  have  no  use  for  him  as  a 
'breeder,  and  put  him  in  the  shipping  crate  for  market.  If  his 
pelvic  bones  are  straight  like  Fig.  34,  we  measure  the  depth  of 
his  abdomen.  If  it  is  less  than  two  fingers,  we  put  him  in  the 
shipping  crate.  If  two  fingers  or  over,  we  examine  him  for  pre- 
potency, and  if  the  projection  on  the  back  of  his  head  as  in 
No.  1  plate  35,  is  less  than  ^n  eighth  of  an  inch  behind  a  line 
•drawn  at  right  angles  from  the  back  of  the  ear,  (see  Figs.  41,  42 


96  THE     CALL     OP     THE     HEN. 

and  43),  we  put  him  in  the  shipping  crate  no  m|atter  how  good 
he  is  in  other  points.  We  take  no  chances  with  him  because 
if  we  have  made  no  mistake  in  measuring  his  head  lines, 
abdomen  and  pelvic  bones,  it  will  be  a  waste  of  time  to  breed 
from  him ;  but  if  his  head  measures  up  good,  we  keep  him  as  a 
prospective  breeder.  We  say  as  a  prospective  breeder,  as  it  is 
very  evident  it  will  not  pay  to  raise  all  the  cockerels  to  matur- 
ity. 

Here  in  Petaluma  where  there  are  over  600,000  cockerels 
laised  to  broiler  age  in  a  season,  it  would  be  impossible  to 
raise  them  all  and  test  their  breeding  qualities.  Neither  is  it 
necessary.  If  a  person  has  a  delicate  touch  the  comparative 
value  of  chicks  for  prepotency  can  be  judged  as  well  when  they 
are  three  days  old  as  at  any  time  later.  Then  again  we  are 
obliged  to  keep  our  chicks  until  we  can  distinguish  the  males 
from  the  females,  and  as  a  rule  we  will  lose  nothing  if  we  keep 
them  until  they  are  at  least  ten  weeks  old,  when  if  they  have 
had  the  right  care  and  feed  they  will  be  old  enough  to  test.  If 
their  pelvic  bones  are  thick  at  this  age  it  indicates  they  are 
more  or  less  of  the  meat  type.  If  their  pelvic  bones  are  crooked 
it  indicates  that  they  never  will  be  straight,  and  if  they  lack 
prepotency  it  indicates  that  they  will  always  lack  it,  for  they 
come  out  of  the  shell  with  this  organ  relatively  large  or  small, 
just  as  a  baby  is  born  with  a  nose  on  its  face. 

I  want  to  impress  on  the  reader  the  importance  of  using 
the  utmost  care  in  measuring  the  head  for  prepotency,  as  it  is 
very  easy  for  a  person  to  think  he  has  measured  the  head  right, 
when  he  has  not  done  so.  Especially  if  he  has  self  esteem  large 
he  then  thinks  everything  he  does  must  be  right.  It  would  be 
impossible  for  him  to  do  anything  otherwise,  than  the  right 
way.  In  my  classes  I  have  found  workers  in  the  machinist 
trade  to  make  the  most  correct  measurements,  especially  if 
they  had  the  faculty  of  human  nature  large.  While  I  have 
found  professional  men  who  had  human  nature  small,  to  make 
the  poorest  measurements.  This  was  owing  to  prejudice  and 
not  to  the  absence  of  the  combination  of  the  necessary  mental 
faculties.  I  suppose  there  will  always  be  found  those  who  will 
discredit  the  most  obvious  fact,  if  it  puts  them  at  a  disadvan- 
tage from  a  mental,  moral,  or  financial  point  of  view,  but  in  this 
case  it  would  be  cutting  off  your  nose  to  spite  your  face  to  be 
careless  in  anv  of  these  tests. 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN.  97 

I  have  never  yet  in  my  investigations  of  hundreds  of  poul- 
try plants  found  a  degenerate  lot  of  poultry,  but  that  they  were 
small  in  prepotency.  But  to  return  to  the  cockerels,  as  we  said 
on  page  95  we  raised  300  cockerels  the  first  year  I  was  in 
California.  After  testing  them  at  three  months  old  as  de- 
scribed, I  found  18  that  I  considered  worth  keeping  to  the  age 
of  9  months,  when  I  would  give  them  the  final  test.  When 
they  were  8  months  old  I  tested  them  again,  and  while  I  found 
that  they  all  had  good  depth  of  abdomen  and  good  prepotency,, 
that  six  of  them  had  crooked  pelvic  bones.  The  pelvic  bones 
on  twelve  of  the  cockerels  had  continued  to  grow  straight, 
while  the  pelvic  bones  on  six  of  them  had  grown  crooked  and 
were  coming  together  at  the  points  like  the  horns  on  a  Jersey 
cow.  I  had  to  discard  these  six  as  breeders  and  send  them  to 
market. 

The  reader  will  see  that  out  of  300  cockerels  I  had  only  12 
that  were  capable  of  improving  my  flock..  Last  year  (1912)  out 
of  about  1200  I  had  only  200  that  I  considered  good  enough 
to  keep  for  breeders,  and  while  all  my  birds  have  been  more  or 
less  squirel  tailed,  one  of  last  year's  200  is  a  very  well  formed 
low  tailed  bird.  But  he  lacks  the  pure  white  ear  lobes.  He 
scores  250  egg  type  and  I  have  refused  fifty  dollars  for  him.  I 
am  going  to  see  if  I  can  breed  a  low  tailed  type  of  Leghorn 
in  quantities  that  will  conform  to  the  present  American  Stand- 
ard and  average  about  200  eggs  per  year  in  large  flocks.  The 
reader  will  understand  that  the  parents  of  these  cockerels  were 
selected  with  the  greatest  care  as  to  capacity,  type  and  prepot- 
ency. .  Type  and  Prepotency  are  more  or  less  hereditary  traits 
or  features  distinguishable  in  the  subjects,  if  we  have  the 
knowledge  necessary  to  discern  them.  But  the  individual  in- 
herent or  innate  potentiality  of  any  one  or  of  each  bird  cannot 
be  increased  or  diminished  by  the  breeder.  That  is  to  say,, 
feed  and  environment  will  not  materially  change  the  impotent 
bird  into  a  potent  bird,  neither  will  it  change  the  typical  meat 
type  into  the  egg  type  bird. 

But  (I  hear  some  sarcastic  reader  say)  we  certainly  can- 
diminish  or  increase  their  prepotency  by  alternately  starving* 
and  feeding  them  well.  That  is  begging  the  question.  You 
could  affect  their  fecundity  very  readily,  but  what  the  writer 
wishes  to  impress  on  the  reader  is  that  while  type  and  prepot- 
ency are  fixed  before  birth,  and  also  the  ability  to  govern 


98  THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 

capacity,  and  while  type  and  prepotency  can  be  procured  only 
by  selection,  capacity  can  be  governed  more  or  less  by  environ- 
ment, in  other  words,  feed,  care,  the  right  kind  of  houses,, 
ground,  etc.  We  will  say,  for  instance,  the  reader  has  a  pen 
of  egg  type  birds,  both  male  and  female,  with  large  prepotency 
and  capacity;  and  suppose  they  were  all  200  egg  birds.  There 
would  be  no  difficulty  in  raising  chickens  from  them  with  the 
same  degree  of  type  and  prepotency;  but  if  he  should  stint 
them  in  feed  of  the  proper  kind  and  quantity  while  growing, 
they  would  lose  in  capacity  each  generation.  I  develop  the 
capacity  of  both  pullets  and  cockerels  from  the  time  they  are 
three  days  old  to  the  fullest  extent  by  the  most  liberal  feeding, 
care,  and  surrounding  conditions.  In  concluding  this  chapter, 
I  would  say  that  the  bird  with  the  desired  characteristics  is 
more  or  less  of  a  sport;  and  the  value  of  the  "Hogan  Test" 
lies  in  the  fact  that  with  this  knowledge  you  can  discover  the 
sport  and  perpetuate  it  through  intelligent  breeding.  Again  I 
want  to  say  here  that  my  best  cockerels  measure  four  fingers 
abdomen  at  three  months  old.  All  my  stock  is  developed  as 
much  as  possible  at  this  age  and  I  try  to  prevent  the  cockerels 
from  shrinking.  But  the  pullets  will  develop  until  some  of 
them  are  six  ringers  abdomen.  The  enclosed  article  from  the 
Petaluma  Weekly  Poultry  Journal  emphasizes  what  we  have 
said  in  regard  to  the  feeding  and  care  of  young  stock.  These 
cockerels  were  not  crammed,  or  penned  up  and  fed,  but  were 
taken  off  free  range  and  sent  directly  to  market.  I  wish  to 
remind  the  reader  here  that  in  examining  the  cockerels  for 
prepotency  he  may  be  proficient  enough  in  the  matter  to  ex- 
amine them  by  holding  them  between  his  knees  and  not  be 
obliged  to  put  each  one  in  a  sack.  The  article  follows : 

Walter  Hogan  Can  Raise  Chickens. 

Walter  Hogan  backs  up  his  system  ol  selecting  the  good 
layers  from  among  the  poor  ones,  but  he  has  never  made  much 
fuss  about  his  ability  as  a  poultry  raiser.  For  that  reason  some 
people  have  absorbed  the  idea  that  he  is  more  of  a  theorist 
than  a  practical  man.  But  he  now  has  a  flock  of  his  own,  and 
evidently  he  is  making  good,  for  he  is  getting  results  that  will 
convince  any  one  from  Missouri  or  anywhere  else  who  must 
be  "shown"  before  believing.  For  instance,  last  week  there 
was  a  spell  of  most  discouraging  depression  in  the  prices  which 
dealers  were  willing  to  pay  for  young  poultry.  There  were 


THE     CALL     OP     THE     HEN.  99 

large  arrivals  of  eastern  poultry  in  San  Francisco  besides  heavy 
receipts  of  California,  and  nobody  wanted  any  more.  Just  the 
same,  Mr.  Hogan  received  $4  a  dozen  for  sixteen  dozen  cock- 
erels just  three  months  old,  when  the  same  dealer  was  paying 
but  $1.50  for  brids  of  the  same  age.  Now,  what  do  you  think 
of  that?  And  Mr.  Hogan  says  these  cockerels  were  not  de- 
scendants of  the  beef  type  of  hens,  but  were  hatched  from  eggs 
laid  by  hens  selected  as  the  egg  type.  They  were  not  especial- 
ly fed  or  in  any  way  prepared  for  market.  They  cost  22  cents 
each  for  feed,  and  thus  the  profit  on  the  bunch  was  $21.76. 

In  speaking  of  this  matter  Mr.  Hogan  made  the  point  that 
if  all  poultrymen  would  pay  especial  attention  to  producing 
fine  broilers  for  market — that  is  in  preparing  the  broilers  that 
they  are  obliged  to  produce  in  order  to  have  a  corresponding 
number  of  pullets — they  would  benefit  themselves  greatly.  Not 
only  would  they  get  a  better  price  for  the  birds,  but  they  would 
greatly  increase  the  demand,  as  many  people  who  now  care 
nothing  for  the  common  dry-meated  birds  would  become  pleas- 
ed consumers  of  the  improved  broilers.  The  Poultry  Journal 
man  knows  by  personal  experience  that  the  broilers  turned  out 
by  Mr.  Hogan  are  simply  delicious  when  properly  cooked,  and 
far  ahead  of  the  ordinary  article. 


CHAPTER    XIII. 
SELECTING  THE  SETTING  HEN. 

"How  can  I  select  the  best  hen  for  the  purpose  when  I 
want  to  hatch  chickens  with  hens?" 

The  writer  is  asked  the  above  question  very  often.  It  is 
a  serious  matter  with  a  poultryman  when  he  has  a  small  number 
of  choice  eggs  he  wishes  to  hatch  and  gives  them  to  a  hen  that 
is  apparently  setting  well  only  to  have  her  spoil  most  of  them. 
He  very  naturally  lays  the  cause  to  mites,  or  lice,  or  both. 
While  it  is  true  that  the  nests  and  surroundings  must  be  kept 
fiee  from  mites,  and  the  hens  kept  clean  from  hen  lice,  the 
trouble  is  not  all  here  by  a  good  deal.  Sometimes  a  great  deal 
of  the  fault  lies  in  the  hen.  Some  are  born  layers,  some  are 
born  mothers,  and  some  are  born  too  lazy  to  get  off  of  the  nest 
at  the  call  of  nature.  The  hen  born  a  typical  egg  type  is  of  no 
use  as  a  setter;  neither  is  the  hen  that  is  born  a  typical  meat 


100  THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 

type,  she  is  too  lazy  to  care  for  her  chicks,  even  if  she  is  for- 
tunate enough  to  hatch  any  and  not  kill  them  all  by  standing 
on  them.  She  is  too  stupid  any  way,  and  the  typical  egg  type 
hen  is  too  nervous,  and  has  no  time  to  attend  to  them.  She 
thinks  of  nothing  but  manufacturing  eggs.  So  we  will  have  to 
look  for  a  hen  between  the  above  types  which  we  have  in  the 
dual  purpose  type,  with  the  following  characteristics . 

First,  she  must  have  prepotency  large:  that  gives  her  the 
mother  instinct.  Next,  she  should  be  in  normal  condition  as 
indicated  by  her  breast  bone;  that  is  self  evident,  for  a  hen  out 
-of  condition  lacks  more  or  less  of  the  animal  magnetism  that 
is  an  aid  to  successful  incubation.  I  need  not  mention  good 
health  as  indicated  by  good  red  comb  and  wattles  as  every  one 
knows  that.  The  hen  should  be  four  fingers  abdomen  since 
anything  heavier  is  more  or  less  liable  to  break  the  eggs  and 
anything  less  than  that  would  not  be  large  enough  to  cover 
sufficient  eggs.  If  the  hen  is  a  three  fingered  abdomen,  hen 
her  pelvic  bones  should  be  about  seven-sixteenths  or  one-half 
an  inch  thick.  If  she  is  a  four  finger  abdomen  hen,  her  pelvic 
bones  should  be  about  one-half  inch  or  nine-sixteenth  thick.  If 
you  can  find  hens  such  as  described  here,  you  will  have  hens 
with  the  mother's  instinct.  They  will  not  be  too  lazy  to  take 
proper  care  of  themselves  and  their  chicks  nor  will  they  want 
to  lay  so  soon  as  to  neglect  their  chickens.  The  nearer  you  can 
get  to  procuring  the  above  type  of  hens,  the  better  success  you 
will  have  raising  chicks  with  them. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 
SELECTING  THE  STOCK  FOR  RAISING  BROILERS. 

A  great  many  of  my  friends  have  requested  me  to  write  a 
chapter  on  how  to  raise  broilers,  but  as  there  are  so  many  ex- 
cellent books  on  the  market  that  describe  the  process  of  the 
feeding,  caring  for  and  raising  of  broilers  a  great  deal  better 
than  I  could  do  it,  I  will  confine  myself  to  the  selection  of  the 
breeding  stock  only.  The  writer  has  raised  Light  Brahmas  and 
White  Plymouth  Rocks  for  years  and  has  experimented  with 
them  to  get  the  greatest  amount  of  meat  from  the  smallest 
amount  of  feed:  to  get  the  greatest  weight  of  meat  at  three 


THE     CALL     OP     THE     HEtt  101 

months  old  in  the  White  Rocks,  and  the  greatest  weight  of 
meat  in  the  Light  Brahmas  at  maturity.  In  the  process  I  have 
run  up  against  two  distinct  propositions:  one  was  a  success 
from  a  commercial  point  of  view,  and  the  other,  while  not  a 
financial  success,  was  a  success  from  an  epicurean  point  of  view. 
I  will  describe  the  financial  proposition  first. 

We  will  select  a  pen  of  hens  from  our  favorite  breed,  or 
from  W^yandottes,  Orpingtons,  Plymouth  Rocks,  or  R.  I.  Reds. 
The  hens  must  have  large  prepotency:  they  must  be  six  or 
seven  fingers  abdomen,  and  their  pelvic  bones  should  be  5-8 
of  an  inch  thick,  in  good  condition.  Now  you  have  hens  that 
should  lay  12  dozen  eggs  their  first  laying  year,  and  they  are  a 
paying  proposition.  Do  not  breed  from  them  the  first  year,  but 
wait  until  they  are  over  one  year  old.  Then  mate  them  with  a 
mature  cockerel  or  young  cock  with  large  prepotency  with  ab- 
domen four  fingers  deep  or  more,  and  pelvic  bones  from  one 
inch,  to  one  and  one-fourth  inches  thick.  You  should  feed  the 
pen  for  eggs,  and  keep  them  as  healthy  as  possible.  If  they  arc 
fed  right,  you  will  get  lots  of  eggs,  and  good  healthy  chicks 
capable  of  laying  on  flesh  rapidly  and  fattening  very  easily.  As 
a  paying  proposition  for  market  broilers  I  have  never  found 
any  combination  that  would  equal  it. 

But  for  my  private  use  without  regard  to  profit  I  would 
take  the  same  combination  as  the  above  except  that  the  pelvic 
bones  of  the  hens  would  be  one  inch  thick,  instead  of  about 
5-8.  This  would  give  a  broiler  that  would  put  on  flesh  much 
faster,  consequently  it  would  be  more  tender.  I  have  raised 
broilers,  the  flesh  of  which  would  melt  in  your  mouth.  I  have 
a  few  secrets  in  the  raising  of  them  that  I  have  never  divulged 
but  may  do  so  in  a  few  years. 


102 


THE     CALL,    OF    THE     HEN. 


Figure  51.— The  Dry  Mash  Hopper  We  Use.      Closed. 


Figure   52. — The  Dry  Mash  Hopper  We  Use.       Open. 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN.  103 

CHAPTER  XV. 

USING  THE  HOGAN  TEST  IN  JUDGING  POULTRY  AT 
THE  POULTRY  SHOWS. 

From  the  Live  Stock  Tribune,  Los  Angeles,  California- 
(Now  Pacific  Poultrycraft.) 

INGLEWOOD  POULTRY  SHOW. 

A  poultry  show  will  be  held  in  the  Inglewood  Poultry 
Colony  on  March  13th  and  14th.  This  show  will  be  the  first 
of  its  kind  ever  given  in  the  United  States.  All  poultry  shows 
that  have  been  held  in  this  country  heretofore  have  awarded 
prizes  according  to  the  color,  markings,  and  shape  of  the 
fowls  only.  The  show  at  Inglewood  will  be  unusual  in  that 
prizes  will  be  awarded  irrespective  of  the  color,  variety,  shape, 
size  or  age  of  the  fowls  in  competition. 

Birds  in  competition  will  be  judged  as  to  their  egg-laying 
capacity  and  reproductive  ability  only.  The  judging  will  be 
done  by  the  system  discovered  and  perfected  by  Walter  Hogan, 
and  now  used  in  practical  poultry  raising  by  the  members  of 
the  Inglewood  Poultry  Colony. 

First,  second,  third,  fourth  and  fifth  prizes  will  be  awarded 
to  the  best  males  and  females  entered  from  Inglewood.  First 
prize  being  $5  cash,  second  prize  being  $3  cash,  all  winners 
receiving  ribbons.  In  addition  to  the  foregoing  will  be  the 
Jaffa  Grand  Prize  of  $25  gold,  which  will  be  awarded  to  the 
hen  in  the  show  which  shows  the  greatest  capacity  as  a  layer 
combined  with  the  ability  to  reproduce  her  kind. 

Entries  for  the  regular  prizes  will  be  limited  to  fowls  from 
Inglewood,  but  competition  for  the  "Jaffa  Grand  Prize"  will 
be  open  to  all  comers.  Entries  from  poultry  raisers  outside 
of  Inglewood  will  be  limited  to  two  birds  each.  No  entry  fee 
will  be  charged,  but  all  birds  entered  will  be  sent  at  the  own- 
er's risk  as  is  usual  at  all  shows. 

The  birds  entered  will  be  cared  for,  and  reshipped  to  the 
owners  by  White  Wyandotte  Farm,  under  whose  auspices  the 


104  THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 

show  will  be  given,  and  to  whom  all  entries  should  be  sent.  No 
entries  will  be  received  after  ten  o'clock  a.  m.  on  March  12th. 

This  show  will  be  unique  in  that  it  will  present  the  com- 
mercial side  of  the  poultry  industry,  to  the  exclusion  of  fancy 
breeding.  Every  step  in  the  poultry  business  from  the  hatch- 
ing of  the  chick  to  the  preparation  of  the  mature  fowl  for  mar- 
ket, and  the  packing  of  the  eggs  for  table  use  will  be  illustrat- 
ed by  actual  demonstrations  on  the  famous  White  Wyandotte 
Farm  where  the  exhibition  will  be  given.  Incubators  will 
hatch  not  less  than  2000  chicks  during  the  show,  and  chickens 
in  every  stage  of  development,  from  one  day  old  to  ten  weeks 
old,  will  be  shown  as  raised  in  the  best  brooders  with  the  best 
care. 

There  will  be  demonstrations  on  both  days  of  the  show  of 
killing,  picking  and  preparing  fowls  for  market,  as  well  as  of 
packing  fancy  eggs.  The  best  and  latest  in  poultry  supplies, 
fittings  and  equipment  will  be  shown  as  actually  used  by  the 
capable,  successful  men  who  are  in  the  business  for  revenue 
only. 

No  admission  fee  will  be  charged,  the  show  being  given 
for  the  purpose  of  exploiting  and  demonstrating  the  poultry 
business  as  it  is  being  developed  in  Southern  California. 

The  "Jaffa  Grand  Prize"  is  given  and  named  in  honor  of 
Professor  Jaffa,  of  the  University  of  California,  who  was  the 
first  man  in  public  life  in  this  state  to  test  and  verify  the  ex- 
cellence of  the  system  discovered  by  Mr.  Hogan. 

Transportation  from  Los  Angeles  to  Inglewood  will  be 
fiee,  and  it  is  understood  that  the  Board  of  Trade  of  Ingle- 
wood  will  make  arrangements  to  take  those  who  visit  the  shovv 
around  the  city  of  Inglewood  in  automobiles. 

Those  who  visit  the  Inglewood  Poultry  Show  will  see  an 
chibition  that  will  be  more  interesting  by  far  than  any  show 
that  has  preceded  it  in  California,  or  in  any  other  state,  because 
one  will  have  an  opportunity  to  see,  not  the  pedigree,  but  the 
money,  in  the  chicken,  and  a  practical  way  to  get  that  money 
out. 


In  judging  the  poultry  show  at  Inglewood  the  manage- 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN  105 

mom  made  the  rule  that  all  birds  were  to  be  judged  according 
to  tl  e  condition  they  were  in  at  the  time  they  were  judged. 
And  while  this  rule  may  be  all  right  in  judging  the  fancy  bird 
and  the  beef  type  bird,  it  will  never  do  for  the  egg  type  bird 
as  the  reader  will  see  when  I  relate  an  incident  that  occurred 
during  the  show  in  Ingle  wood,  which  was  held  in  Match.  A 
gentleman  had  entered  a  White  Leghorn  hen  that  he  \ad  trap- 
uested  a  ]  ear  uj.  to  tlic  previous  November,  and  hi  1  her 
record  with  him.  The  hen  scored  (as  near  as  I  can  retuetuber) 
two  En^eis  abdomen,  two  fingers  out  of  condition,  and  3-16 
pelvic  bone,  and  according  to  the  rules  of  the  show  I  w  r>  oblig- 
ed to  give  her  credit  for  78  eggs  her  first  laying  year,  when  «.c- 
cording  to  his  trap  nested  record  she  had  laid  180  eggs.  He 
said  she  had  been  sick  and  had  just  commenced  to  improve 
shortly  before  he  sent  her  to  the  show,  and  he  wanted  to  prove 
whether  or  not  I  could  tell  how  many  eggs  she  had  laid  her 
f  rst  laying  year.  I  told  him  I  could  not  tell  how  many  eggs 
she  had  laid  but  I  could  tell  how  many  she  could  have  laid  if 
she  had  been  fed  and  cared  for  right,  barring  accidents  and 
sickness.  That  her  capacity  was  190  eggs  her  first  laying  year. 
He  then  showed  me  her  record  which  was  180  eggs. 

In  the  autumn  of  1911  George  D.  Holden,  ex-president  of 
the  American  Poultry  Association  judged  the  fancy,  and  the 
writer  judged  the  utility  birds  at  the  Pajaro  Valley  Poultry 
show  held  at  Watsonville,  Santa  Cruz  county,  Calif.  In  judg- 
ing that  show  full  credit  was  given  each  bird  both  male  and  fe- 
male, as  to  what  they  were  capable  of  doing,  whether  in  meat 
or  eggs,  and  for  prepotency,  without  any  regard  as  to  how  their 
owners  cared  for  them.  Or  in  other  words  without  regard  to 
their  condition.  And  the  owners  of  the  birds  who  were  inter- 
ested in  knowing,  were  instructed  how  to  rectify  any  deficiency 
there  may  have  been  in  the  birds.  It  seems  to  me  this  is  the 
best  way  to  encourage  and  develop  the  poultry  industry.  I  am 
sure  the  American  Poultry  Association  could  formulate  a  code 
of  rules  that  would  greatly  aid  in  judging  utility  poultry,  and 
thereby  add  greatly  to  the  interest  of  our  poultry  shows.  In 
fact  I  am  advised  that  such  a  proposition  is  being  considered 
at  the  time  I  am  writing  this,  July  25th,  1913. 


106  THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

STAMINA  IN  POULTRY. 

When  I  came  to  California  and  told  the  poultry  raisers 
that  I  was  going  to  take  their  birds  and  in  the  course  of  time 
breed  a  flock  of  200  egg  hens  from  them,  they  declared  it 
could  not  be  done.  They  said  if  it  was  possible  to  breed  up  a 
large  flock  of  200  egg  hens,  their  progeny  would  be  so  weak  I 
could  never  raise  them  and  that  their  eggs  would  be  so  mis- 
shapen, and  thin  shelled  they  would  not  be  marketable.  I  re- 
plied that  perhaps  they  were  right  but  I  saw  no  reason  why  I 
could  not  do  so  here,  as  I  had  bred  up  one  lot  in  the  eastern 
states  and  another  lot  in  Minnesota.  Both  lots  were  Leghorns 
and  I  thought  it  would  be  easier  to  develop  Leghorns  in  Cali- 
fornia than  in  Minnesota,  and  I  have  now  demonstrated  in  Cali- 
fornia that  the  following  can  be  done :  First,  the  200  egg  hen  is 
a  fact  and  not  a  theory.  Second,  that  she  can  be  bred  and  fed 
to  lay  as  perfect  an  egg  as  any  other  class  of  hens.  Third,  that 
her  eggs  are  as  fertile  and  will  hatch  as  strong  chicks  as  the 
hen  that  does  not  pay  for  her  feed.  The  breeder  need  not  take 
my  word  for  the  above  statements.  The  Frontispiece  shows 
five  of  this  type  of  birds  that  the  writer  bred  and  raised  in  Cali- 
fornia. These  birds  laid  the  greatest  weight  of  eggs  (131  pens 
of  five  birds  to  each  pen  competing,  including  three  pens  of  In- 
dian runner  ducks)  in  the  National  Egg  Laying  Contest  at  the 
State  poultry  experiment  station,  Mountain  Grove,  Missouri, 
U.  S.  A.,  for  the  12  months  ending  November  1st,  1912.  These 
five  hens  laid  131  Ibs.  of  eggs  which  reduced  to  No.  1  eggs  as 
rated  in  Petaluma  would  be  229  3-5  eggs  for  each  hen.  The 
eggs  these  five  hens  laid  while  moulting  were  put  on  exhibition 
in  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  in  Petaluma  and  were  pro- 
nounced by  good  judges  to  be  as  fine  a  lot  of  eggs  as  they  ever 
saw,  and  that  is  saying  a  great  deal,  as  there  are  more  eggs 
produced  within  a  radius  of  ten  miles  from  Petaluma  than  in 
any  other  like  part  of  the  world.  We  have  hundreds  of  letters 
from  our  customers  testifying  to  the  value  of  this  stock,  a  few 
extracts  of  which  we  will  introduce  here,  to  prove  to  the  reader 
that  because  a  flock  of  hens  are  great  layers  it  does  not  follow 
that  they  are  of  low  vitality. 


THE  CALL,  OF  THE  HEN.  107 

EXTRACTS  FROM  LETTERS. 

Portland,  Ore.,  5-23-1912 

"Received  eggs.  None  broken.  Very  nice.  Fifteen  infer- 
tile out  of  150."  C.  F.  Perkins. 

Lihue,  Hawaii,  6-11-43. 

Eggs  arrived  O.   K.     None   damaged.     Have    14  chicks 
four  weeks  old  doing  fint.     Am  well  pleased." 

E.  H    Br, \adhent. 

(These  eggs  were  shipped  over  twenty-two  hundred  miles 
by  rail  and  steamer  to  reach  their  destination.) 

"Watsonville,  Calif.,  4-21-12.— Eggs  received.  Finest  we 
ever  had.  Got  49  fine  strong  chicks  from  64  eggs." 

Ora  L.  Hill. 

Vancouver,  British  Columbia,  5-13-12.. 
"The  100  eggs  received.     Express  and  customs  ran  price 
to  $14.00.     Am  very  well  satisfied.     Hatched  70  per  cent  beau- 
tiful chicks,  doing  well."  G.  W.  McLelland. 

Quincy,  Washington,  4-14-12, 
"Chicks  received;  not  a  dead  one  in     the     bunch,     which 

speaks  well  for  the  vitality  of  your  stock." 

H.  L.  Johnson,  Treasurer  and  Manager,  Quincy     Lumber 

and  Grain  Co. 

Victoria,  British  Columbia,  4-19-13.  Sub.  P.  O.  No.  1. 
"Received,  the  100  chicks  four  dead.     Think  that  is  very 
good  coming  that  journey."  James  D.  West. 

Salem,  Oregon,  4-19-13. 

"Received  baby  chicks.  They  are  just  lovely;  not  one 
dead,  which  we  think  is  great.  They  came  in  fine  shape." 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hayre. 

Seattle,  Washington.  8-25-12. 

"Received  the  1040  chicks  about  ten  weeks  ago.  There 
were  five  dead  in  the  boxes.  Hav  lost  about  seventy-five1-  of 
them  all  told."  S.  K.  Suttle,  Seattle,  Wash. 

Tucson,  Arizona,  2-17-13. 

"Received  chicks  in  good  condition,  one  dead,  six  hundred 
and  twenty-three  alive  and  kicking."  L.  E.  Smith. 


108  THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 

Reno,  Nevada,  3-11-13. 

"Chicks  came  through  fine,  one  dead  in  seven  hundred, 
which  speaks  well  for  their  vitality.  They  surely  are  a  spry 
bunch."  A.  L.  Rice. 

Reno,  Nevada,  7-22-13. 

"Chicks  are  fine.  They  are  the  largest  and  best  looking 
ever  seen  in  Nevada.  They  are  just  four  months  and  twelve 
days  old.  One  of  them  laid  yesterday.  Every  poultryman 
that  sees  them  remarks  it's  too  bad  I  haven't  a  thousand." 

A.  L.  Rice. 

The  above  extracts  are  taken  from  a  few  of  the  many  un- 
solicited letters  I  have  received  from  my  customers  during  the 
last  two  years  that  I  have  been  selling  hatching  eggs  and  day 
old  chicks.  I  have  repeatedly  shipped  hatching  eggs  to  the 
Hawaiian  Islands  and  as  far  east  as  Minnesota:  and  day  old 
chicks  where  they  would  be  over  72  hours  on  the  road.  Last 
season  I  turned  down  over  six  thousand  dollars  worth  of  orders 
that  I  could  not  fill  at  $10  per  100  for  eggs  and  $15.00  per  100 
for  day  old  chicks.  1  am  aware  I  will  have  a  hard  time  convinc- 
ing some  of  my  readers  that  what  I  claim  for  the  200  egg  hen 
is  true,  but  it  seems  to  me  any  progressive  poultryman  would 
be  satisfied  with  the  proof  I  offer  him.  I  will  admit  that  the 
eggs  and  chicks  from  the  200  egg  type  hens  as  now  bred  are 
not  all  we  would  desire,  but  that  is  owing  to  lack  of  proper 
knowledge  of  breeding.  As  I  have  said  before,  by  using  the 
"Hogan  Test"  the  reader  can  breed  as  fine  or  as  coarse  as  his 
conditions  require;  and  by  selecting  only  those  birds  with 
large  prepotency  he  will  be  assured  of  success. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 
"AT  SEA  OVER  MATING." 

What  shall  it  be;  The  Trap  Nest,  Mendelism  or  the  Hogan 
Test? 


From  The  North  American,  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  Nov.  24,  1912. 

"At  Sea  Over  Mating." 
America  has  some  good  layers,  unheard  of  and  unknown, 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN.  109 

'tis  true,  but  we  are  evidently  all  at  sea  in  the  matter  of  rrating 
for  egg  production. 

Can  it  be  possible  that  Mendel's  law  obtains  in  egg  produc- 
tion, just  as  it  does  in  leathers  and  form?.  Do  we  elim':»;ite, 
according  to  Mendel,  tlio.  lacror  governing  certain  things  in  o^j; 
production,  just  as  we  dc  m  the  attempt  to  control  coloring  »1> 
birds,  fcv\ls,  animals  a,id  flowers?  If  a  son  of  a  heavy-laying 
female  is  mated  to  a  non-layer  and  this  son  does  not  carry  the 
excess  of  laying  proclivity,  do  we  get  poor  layers  or  good  lay- 
ers? If  a  100  per  cent  producing  hen  (200  eggs  or  more)  is 
mated  to  the  son  of  a  100  per  cent  producing  female,  it  does  not 
follow,  if  Mendel's  law  applies,  that  the  mate  to  the  second  100 
per  cent  female  inherited  egg-laying  proclivities;  therefore, 
why  should  the  offspring  of  the  second  mating  be  prolific  egg 
producers?  And  how  far  back  must  we  go  to  get  the  excess  of 
female  inclination  to  reproduction  ? 

Predominance  of  inclination  exists  somewhere  in  some 
tangible  form,  but  we  do  not  seem  to  be  able  to  find  it  under 
our  present  system.  That  we  will  is  conclusive,  but  we  must 
do  so  quickly,  in  order  to  offset  the  growing  increase  of  food- 
stuffs. 


The  trap  nest  identifies  and  gives  you  the  number  of  eggs 
a  hen  lays,  and  is  absolutely  necessary  if  we  wish  to  line  breed 
or  raise  pedigreed  stock.  The  writer  has  studied  Mendelism 
since  the  spring  of  1910,  as  he  has,  numerous  other  scientific 
works  in  the  endeavor  to  find  something  that  would  be  of  aid! 
in  getting  out  this  work.  I  must  confess  that  the  title,  "The1 
Call  of  the  Hen,"  was  suggested  while  on  a  visit  with  Comrade 
Jack  London,  and  that  is  all  I  have  been  able  to  find  that  has 
aided  me  in  this  case.  Mendelism  may  be  found  an  aid  along 
the  line  of  feathers,  but  I  doubt  if  there  is  anything  in  it  that 
will  aid  the  poultryman  in  the  selection  of  breeders  for  type, 
stamina,  and  the  production  of  eggs,  or  meat.  It  may  be  that, 
having  eyes  I  fail  to  see  it.  Even  if  there  should  be  anything 
of  value  in  Mendelism,  it  would  take  two  or  more  years  to  get 
it  out,  while  the  Hogan  Test  indicates  the  value  of  a  bird  in  a 
few  minutes,  at  most.  It  looks  to  me  as  if  the  poultrymen  will 
have  to  look  to  the  trap  nest,  and  the  Hogan  Test  to  develop 
and  maintain  the  high  scoring  meat  and  egg  producing  hen. 


110  THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 

The  best  pullets  can  be  selected  at  maturity  by  the  Hogan 
Test,  and  then  trapnested  when  the  poultryman  is  breeding 
pedigreed  stock:  while  the  cull  pullets,  lacking  in  prepotency 
and  other  points,  can  be  kept  as  market  egg  producers.  In  this 
way  it  will  be  necessary  to  trap  nest  only  the  cream  of  the 
flock,  and  thereby  save  an  immense  amount  of  labor.  The  cock- 
erels can  also  be  selected  at  three  months  of  age,  and  the  most 
promising  saved  from  slaughter.  By  this  method  poultry 
breeding  will  be  reduced  to  a  science,  and  become  a  pleasure 
where  now  it  is  a  brain  racking  proposition. 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

HOW  CAN  I  TELL  A  LAYING  HEN? 

I  am  asked  this  question  very  often  and  in  reply  \vuuld 
say  from  a  Scientific  point  of  view  it  is  impossible  to  tell  the 
laying  hen,  except  with  the  X-ray.  I  was  at  a  place  in  San 
Francisco  lately  where  this  subject  was  brought  up.  There  was 
a  small  party  present,  all  of  whom  had  my  System.  One  of  the 
party  worked  in  a  large  meat  market  where  they  bought  and 
dressed  live  poultry.  He  said  that  occasionally  he  dressed  a 
hen  that  showed  no  indications  of  being  a  laying  hen,  but  upon 
being  opened  an  egg  would  be  found  in  her.  I  told  him  the 
hens  that  he  had  described  were  those  that  laid  a  very  few  eggs, 
and  laid  them  only  in  the  spring. .  Their  pelvic  bones  expanded 
only  while  the  hen  was  being  delivered  of  the  egg.  This  hen 
has  practically  but  one  egg  under  process  of  development  at  a 
time,  consequently  her  abdomen  does  not  have  to  expand  to 
make  room  for  only  one  egg.  Whereas  the  hen  that  lays  150 
eggs  per  year  has  a  number  of  eggs  developing  at  the  same 
time,  and  her  abdomen  expands  in  proportion  to  her  needs. 
The  200  egg  hen  has  a  still  larger  number  of  eggs  developing, 
and  she  requires  more  room  for  them,  hence  her  abdomen  ex- 
pands in  proportion.  The  250  egg  hen  has  a  still  larger  num- 
iber  of  eggs  of  all  sizes  developing  and  her  abdomen  expands 
still  wider  than  the  200  egg  hen.  When  the  hen's  abdomen  ex- 
pands her  pelvic  bones,  being  literally  a  part  of  and  continua- 
tion of  her  abdomen,  must  expand  and  contract  with  it.  When 
she  is  through  laying  for  the  season  her  abdomen  contracts 
and  the  pelvic  bones  must  come  closer  together.  Which 
they  do,  although  there  are  exceptions  to  this  rule. 


THE     CALL    OF     THE     HEN.  Ill 

We  will  take  the  145  egg  hen,  for  example,  of  the  san- 
guine temperament.  She  will  be  four  fingers  abdomen  3-8  pel- 
vic bone,  when  in  normal  condition,  with  pelvic  bones  of  good 
shape.  We  draw  our  hand  along  her  breast  bone  (keel)  from 
front  to  rear  and  find  her  abdomen  does  not  drop  down  the 
least  bit  below  the  rear  of  her  breast  bone.  This  hen  we  might 
call  a  normal  hen.  Her  pelvic  bones  will  in  all  probability  ex- 
pand and  contract  in  conformance  with  her  condition  of  laying; 
if  she  was  in  the  flush  of  laying  her  pelvic  bones  may  be  about 
one  and  three-fourths  inches  apart:  later  in  the  season,  when 
she  is  not  laying  so  frequently,  her  pelvic  bones  may  close  to 
about  one  and  a  half  inches;  and  when  she  stops  laying  for  the 
season  her  pelvic  bones  may  close  to  about  one  and  one-fourth 
inches.  This  will  very  likely  be  repeated  each  year.  ,;^.  • 

Now  we  will  select  a  hen  of  the  250  egg  type.  We  draw 
our  hand  along  her  keel,  as  with  the  last  hen;  we  find  she  is  all 
right,  close  built  and  firm;  we  drop  her  and  take  another  250 
egg  type  hen.  In  drawing  our  hand  along  her  keel  (breast 
bone)  we  find  a  slight  bagging  down  in  the  rear.  The  abdomen 
seems  to  drop  below  the  rear  of  the  breast  bone  slightly.  We 
will  say  this  is  a  pullet,  perhaps  six  or  eight  months  old.  She 
is  well  developed  and  you  call  her  one  of  your  best  hens;  you 
are  proud  of  her  and  have  decided  to  set  every  egg  she  lays. 
Don't  you  do  it.  This  pullet  should  be  put  in  a  yard  with 
others  of  her  formation,  after  she  is  sixteen  months  old  and 
trap  nested.  She  may  stop  laying  any  time  and  never  lay  an- 
other egg,  or  she  may  continue  to  lay  another  year  or  so.  In 
any  case  she  has  been  such  a  continuous  layer  that  her  frame 
has  become  set  to  that  form  and  her  pelvic  bones,  as  it  were,  set 
and  will  contract  very  little.  They  will  indicate  that  she  is 
laying  when  in  fact  she  may  not  have  laid  for  years.  I  have 
kept  such  hens  until  they  were  six  years  old,  and  some  of 
them  have  never  laid  an  egg  after  they  were  about  16  months 
still  others  after  they  were  two  years  old.  This  is  where  a  trap 
nest  will  save  you  money.  When  you  select  your  hens  by  the 
charts  44  and  45  at  16,  28  and  40  months  of  age  the  ones  that 
bag  down  the  least  bit  should  be  put  in  a  yard  by  themselves 
and  trapnested  to  discover  the  ones  whose  ovaries  have  broken 
down  and  will  lay  no  more.  This  is  not  difficult  to  discover  as 
the  hen  that  is  over  the  205  egg  type  lays  more  or  less  at  all 
times  during  the  first  two  years  of  her  life,  if  not  stimulated  to 


112  THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 

over  production  her  first  year.  'A  little  learning  is  a  dangerous 
thing',  is  an  old  saying  applicable  to  this  case.  When  a  man 
says,  "Dont  Kill  That  Laying  Hen,"  he  should  furnish  you 
with  an  x-ray  outfit  that  will  enable  you  to  comply  with  his 
request. 

The  writer  has  used  the  pelvic  bone  proposition  for  over 
forty  years  in  selecting  the  laying  hen  and  has  found  the  fol- 
lowing to  be  a  very  good  method  in  selecting  the  hen  that  is 
not  laying:  The  hen  that  scores  130  eggs  her  first  laying  year 
would  measure  about  7-8  of  an  inch  between  her  pelvic  bones 
after  she  stops  laying  for  the  season.  The  hen  that  scores  150 
eggs  her  first  laying  year  would  measure  about  one  inch  be 
tween  her  pelvic  bones  after  she  stops  laying  for  the  season. 
The  hen  that  scores  200  eggs  would  measure  about  one  and 
one-fourth  inches  between  the  pelvic  bones  after  she  stops 
laying  for  the  season.  The  hen  that  scores  250  eggs  would 
measure  about  one  and  one-half  inches  between  the  pelvi,: 
bones  after  she  stops  laying  for  the  season.  The  250  egg  hen 
does  stop  more  or  less  after  her  second  and  sometimes  after 
her  first  season,  if  not  cared  for  right:  but  if  feed  and  environ- 
ment are  right,  she  may  continue  to  lay  more  or  less  until 
three  years  old,  when  her  frame  may  become  set.  When  she  is 
done  laying  her  pelvic  bones  may  remain  two  inches  apart.  As 
liens  grow  older  their  pelvic  bones  become  thicker  during  the 
winter  months  when  they  are  not  laying.  The  thickness  varies 
according  to  their  type,  the  typical  egg  type  changing 
little  or  none,  while  the  more  pronounced  the  meat  type  be- 
comes, the  more  the  pelvic  bone  changes,  owing  to  the  increase 
or  decrease  of  flesh  on  the  abdomen  (flank)  of  the  fowl,  as  it 
takes  on  or  loses  flesh  as  indicated  by  her  breast  bone. 

On  pages  17  and  82,  we  have  called  the  attention  of  the 
reader  to  the  subject  of  CONSTITUTIONAL  VIGOR  AND 
VITALITY. 

As  we  have  now  reached  the  end  of  "The  Call  of  the  Hen," 
I  wish  to  impress  upon  the  reader's  mind  the  importance  of  the 
five  propositions  that  govern  the  Selection,  Breeding,  and 
Profitable  eeping  of  Poultry  are  as  follows:  Capacity,  Con- 
dition, Type,  Prepotency,  and  Vitality  or  Constitutional  Vigor. 

No  doubt  you  have  a  good  working  knowledge  of  the 
first  four  subjects,  and  you  wonder  why  I  have  not  written  a 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN.  113 

•chapter  on  Vitality.  The  reason  is  that  when  I  decided  to 
write  "The  Call  of  the  Hen,"  I  told  my  wife  that  I  would  write 
nothing  that  even  a  blind  man  could  not  understand  and  prac- 
tice. I  have  tried  to  do  so,  for  to  her  patience,  perservance 
and  untiring  zeal,  I  owe  much  of  the  success  I  have  had  in 
getting  out  this  book. 

The  writer  can  see  only  three  ways  of  detecting  vitality 
in  a  fowl.  The  most  ancient  is  intuition,  then,  observation,  and 
lastly,  the  trap  nest.  A  hen  may  be  a  typical  250  egg  type  hen ; 
she  may  have  the  very  best  of  care  and  feed,  and  yet,  for  lack 
of  vitality,  may  not  be  able  to  lay  over  150  eggs  per  year.  Let 
us  take  the  steam  engine  for  example.  There  are  a  great  many 
types  of  engines  besides  the  high  and  low  pressure  ones,  as 
there  are  a  great  many  types  of  hen  and  cock  birds.  The 
diameter  of  cylinder,  length  of  stroke,  and  revolutions  per  min- 
ute give  you  the  capacity  of  the  engine^as  the  length  and  depth 
of  abdomen  in  the  fowl  gives  its  capacity.  The  fuel  fed  into 
the  fire  box  generates  the  steam  (vitality)  to  run  the  engine, 
as  the  food  fed  into  the  hen's  abdomen  generates  her  vitality. 

The  writer  has  owned  steam  engines  where  there  was  de- 
fective fire  box  construction:  scale  in  the  boiler,  and  tubes, 
loose  rin^s  in  the  piston  head,  cylinder  worn  out  of  true,  and 
other  defects  that  reduced  the  efficiency  of  the  power  system 
a  great  deal,  or  in  other  words,  lowered  the  vitality  of  the  en- 
gine. In  just  the  same  way,  a  weak  digestive  system  in  a  250 
egrs:  type  hen  will  reduce  her  egg  yield.  But  do  not  think  that 

O  O         -> '    1  O  O      •/ 

you  can  make  a  150  egef  type  hen  in  perfect  condition  lay  200 
eggs  by  any  of  the  feeding  formulas  now  in  vogue.  If  you  try 
to  force  her  she  will  go  to  flesh  and  then  break  clown  with 
liver  trouble. 

If  you  lack  the  intuitive  faculty,  and  lack  the  time  to 
carefully  observe  individual  hens,  I  would  advise  you  to  select 
the  hens  by  the  chart  you  wish  to  breed  from.  When  they 
are  about  a  year  old  you  can  breed  from  them.  Then  if  you 
wish  to  breed  from  only  those  with  the  greatest  vitality,  trap- 
nest  these  hens  for  the  next  two  or  hree  years.  The  hens  with 
the  greatest  vitality  will  be  great  layers  and  strong  vigorous 
birds,  and  save  the  time  wasted  in  trapnesting  a  lot  of  birds 
that  you  will  eventually  have  to  discard. 


114  THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

This  Chapter  relates  wholly  to  the  system  published  by 
Walter  Hogan,  November  20,  1904.  A  friend  to  whom  I  had 
confided  my  poultry  secrets  some  years  previous  advised  me 
not  to  publish  any  more  of  them  then  than  are  contained 
in  the  following  Chapter.  Saying  that  I  was  a  hundred  years 
ahead  of  the  times,  and  if  I  gave  all  my  secrets  away  then  I 
would  have  nothing  to  fall  back  on  later.  We  have  added  the 
old  System,  contained  in  this  Chapter  at  the  request  of  our 
friends  so  the  readers  could  compare  it  with  the  new  one,  en- 
titled "The  Call  of  the  Hen." 

This  chapter  contains  "Walter  Hogan's  System"  as  the 
writer  wrote  it.  I  did  not  write  "The  Walter  Hogan  System 
of  Increasing  Egg  Production  by  Selection  and  Breeding."  I 
furnished  the  notes  to  a  literary  gentleman  and  he  wrote  it 
without  strict  regard  to  the  text.  But  I  admit  that  I  wrote 
the  "'Call  of  the  Hen"  and  as  I  claim  no  literary  accomplish- 
ments the  reader  will  no  doubt  discover  the  difference  in  the 
work.  The  'Walter  Hogan  System'  was  sold  under"  Promise  of 
Secrecy  which  is  declared  null  and  void  on  the  issuance  of  this 
book. 
Petaluma,  Calif.,  July  31,  1913. 

Signed:         WALTER  HOGAN, 


Showing  the  "colony  system"  of  housing  hens  much  used 
at  Petaluma.  This  method  is  inexpensive  but  not  advisable 
where  the  climate  is  either  very  hot  in  summer  or  very  cold  in 
winter. 


116 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 


WALTER  HOGAN'S  SYSTEM 


WALTER     HOGAN 
The  Originator  of  the  Walter  Hogan  System 


There  are  two  ways  of  selection  described  in  this  docu- 
ment. 

When  hens  are  in  flush  of  laying,  selection  by  the  pelvic 
bones  alone  is  the  easier  way.  But  when  not  in  flush  of  laying, 
the  pelvic  bones  together  with  the  abdomen  will  be  found  the 
most  ready  way.  (See  supplement  next  page.) 

Please  bear  in  mind  that  the  hen  with  thin  pelvic  bones 
and  large,  soft  abdomen  is  the  heavy  egg  laying  type. 

The  hen  with  thick  pelvic  bones  and  large  fleshy,  fatty 
abdomen  is  the  large  beef  type. 

The  hen  with  medium,  thick  pelvic  bones  and  large' 
medium  fleshy  and  medium  fatty  abdomen  is  the  dual  pur- 
pose type,  and  can  be  made  to  lay  fairly  well  or  made  to  pro- 
duce flesh,  it  being  a  matter  of  how  she  is  fed. 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN.  117 

The  hen  with  small  abdomen  is  of  small  account,  either  as 
an  egg  or  as  a  meat  proposition,  as  she  lacks  the  abdominal 
capacity  to  digest  and  assimilate  food  enough  to  sustain  the 
every  day  wear  of  her  system,  and  at  the  same  time  to  pro- 
duce eggs,  or  flesh,  in  paying  quantities. 

Everything  related  here  applies  to  the  male  bird  as  well, 
only  in  a  lesser  degree. 

The  remarks  in  regards  to  pullets  refer  to  mature  pullets, 
as  Leghorn  pullets  are  at  five  months  old  in  the  New  England 
states. 

My  birds  in  Massachusetts  were  bred  for  eggs  only,  for 
years,  and  their  type  became  set  and  their  pelvic  bones  con- 
tracted, when  not  laying,  to  average  about  25  per  cent,  but  I 
find  that  hens  bred  promiscuously  contract  about  50  per  cent. 

The  points  to  be  borne  in  mind  in  using  this  system  are 
that  selection  by  the  pelvic  bones  alone  is  best  made  in  the 
flush  of  laying. 

That  thin  pelvic  bones  and  soft  abdomen  indicate  the  egg 
type. 

That  thick  pelvic  bones  and  hard,  fleshy,  fatty  abdomen 
indicates  the  beef  type. 

The  size  of  the  abdomen  indicates  the  capacity  of  the  bird, 
either  as  an  egg  or  as  a  meat  proposition  as  the  case  may  be — 
large  abdomen,  large  capacity;  small  abdomen,  small  capacity. 

The  same  rules  apply  to  the  cockerel,  cock,  male  bird  or 
rooster,  as  he  may  be  called. 

In  order  to  determine  the  capacity  of  £.  hen  for  egg  pro- 
duction by  one  selection,  she  should  be  in  normal  condition 
and  not  more  than  a  few  days  broody. 

The  estimates  in  this  document  refer  to  hens  about  one 
year  old.  As  a  rule  they  will  lay  less  each  year  as  they  grow 
older — how  much  less  depends  on  the  vitality  of  the  hen,  other 
things  considered. 


118  THE     CALL     OP     THE     HEN. 

SUPPLEMENT  TO  WALTER  HOGAN'S  SYSTEM. 

If  you  will  get  a  little  one-foot  rule  to  check  yourself  up 
while  getting  used  to  measuring  with  the  tips  of  your  fingers 
as  in  figure  4,  you  will  have  no  trouble  in  applying  its  principles 
right.  You  can  hold  the  bird  feet  up  and  head  down  between 
your  knees  while  you  are  measuring;  then  hold  as  in  figure  4 
and  learn  to  estimate  the  width  right.  Anything  under  one 
inch  will  not  pay,  all  over  1  1-2  inches  will  pay;  from  1  to  1  3-8 
are  doubtful  ;  2  inches  is  about  the  200-egg  type,  and  2  3-8 
inches  about  the  250-egg  type  and  2  3-4  inches  about  the  280- 


Hens  measuring  from  1  to  1  3-8  inches  should  be  put  in  a 
yard  while  being  fed  well  and  looked  over  once  a  week  at 
night  in  the  dark  for  about  eight  weeks  if  you  wish  to  make  a 
careful  test.  Any  that  come  up  or  down  in  measurement  can 
be  put  in  the  good  or  bad  yards  as  the  case  may  be.  Hens  will 
go  up  or  clown  about  25  per  cent  in  measurements  as  they  are 
in  flush  of  laying  or  not.  The  best  time  to  examine  hens  is 
after  dark  while  on  roost,  which  should  be  about  18  inches  from 
the  JAoor.  Place  left  hand  on  back  of  hen,  lift  up  tail  with 
thumb  of  right  hand  and  apply  tips  of  fingers  to  pelvic  bones. 
With  a  little  practice  you  will  be  able  to  inspect  30  per  minute. 
It  is  admitted  by  all  Physcians,  Professors  and  Students  of 
Physioiogy  that  I  have  talked  with  in  regard  to  this  matter 
that  the  abdominal  capacity  of  a  hen  together  with  a  strong 
v-tai  temperament  has  everything  to  do  with  her  value  as  a 
laying  proposition.  The  pelvic  bones  (being  a  continuation  oi 
the  body  structure  of  the  fowl  and  subject  to  very  small 
changes  in  the  formation  of  flesh),  are,  when  comparatively 
straight  and  thin,  an  index  to  the  width  of  the  abdomeu  and 
the  best  if  not  the  only  one  we  have,  as  they  protrude  from 
the  body  nnd  may  be  easily  measured.  The  depth  of  the  abdo 
men  can  be  taken  by  placing  the  palm  of  the  hand  crosswise 
below,  between  the  pelvic  bones  and  the  rear  of  the  breast 
bone.  Somet:mes  it  will  be  1,  2,  3,  4,  5,  or  6  fingers.  (  A  finger 
means  three-uiviiters  of  an  inch).  Also  place  fingers  between 
pelvic  bones  and  tail  bone.  Sometimes  it  will  take  1,  some- 
times 2  fingers  In  this  way  you  can  judge  the  size  of  tbe  ab- 
domen which  with  the  pelvic  development  will  be  a  rule  as  to 
a  hen's  value  as  a  layer,  except  in  rare  cases  of  misplaced  or 


THE     CALL     OP     THE     HEN.  11£ 

diseased  organs.  Sometimes  a  hen  will  have  a  large  abdomen 
but  her  pelvic  bones  will  grow  crooked  and  come  almost  to- 
gether, like  the  horns  of  a  Jersey  cow  and  she  will  lay  better 
than  the  distance  apart  of  her  pelvic  bones  will  indicate  but 
never  will  do  as  well  as  she  should  and  should  not  be  bred 
from.  She  wastes  too  much  nervous  force  in  laying.  The  farth- 
er you  get  away  from  the  crow  formation  the  better  your  hens 
will  be. 

As  a  rule  fowls  are  almost  twice  as  long  coming  to  matur- 
ity in  California  as  they  are  in  the  east  and  middle  west  states. 
Wnat  the  reason  is  I  suspect  but  do  not  know,  but  will  find  out 
in  the  next  two  years. 

No  document  purporting  to  be  a  copy  of  Walter  Hogan's 
System  is  genuine  without  my  signature  as  is  set  hereunder: 
Wishing  you  the  best  of  success,  I  am  sincerely  yours, 


THE  WALTER  HOGAN  SYSTEM  OF  INCREASING  EGG 
PRODUCTION  BY  SELECTION  AND  BREEDING. 

It  has  been  estimated  that  to  add  one-half  dozen  eggs  to 
the  annual  producing  capacity  of  every  hen  in  the  United 
States,  would  result  in  additional  returns  from  our  poultry 
sufficient  to  pay  the  national  debt  within  less  than  a  year.  Al- 
lowing this  to  be  true,  we  are  prepared  to  show  that  the  method 
of  selection  and  breeding  herein  outlined,  is  capable  of  paying 
off  our  great  debt  several  times  during  a  single  year,  without 
having  to  increase  the  number  of  hens  kept  a  single  bird,  or  the 
cost  of  keeping  them  a  single  dollar. 

The  method — or  discovery,  we  might  call  it — has  been 
tested  by  the  writer  in  every  conceivable  way,  regardless  of 
expense,  time  or  trouble,  and  has  been  found  absolutly  faultless 
in  every  particular.  It  has  been  submitted  to  one  government 
Experiment  Station  (as  will  be  shown  later)  with  the  same  un- 
erring results;  and  also  to  a  number  of  the  foremost  poultry- 
men  of  America,  who  fully  and  without  exception  corroborate 
all  that  is  claimed. 

This,  you  will  agree  with  us,  means  a  revolution  in 
economical  egg  production.  It  means,  too,  that  no  poultry- 


120  THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 

man,  however  small  his  flock,  can  afford  to  go  on  in  the     old 
way  a  single  year  longer. 

Every  animal  on  the  farm  has  a  well  defined  mission  all 
its  own,  outside  of  the  general  one  of  producing  meat.  The 
.great  mission  of  the  cow  is  to  produce  milk,  the  sheep  wool, 
and  the  mission  of  the  hen  is  evidently  and  pre-eminently  egg 
production.  This  being  the  case  her  value  varies,  or  should 
vary,  largely  with  her  ability  to  produce  eggs.  And  still  it  is  a 
well  known  fact  that,  while  every  farm  animal  has  been  select- 
ed and  bred  for  the  best  there  was  in  it  along  its  own  peculiar 
line,  and  all  prizes  have  been  awarded  accordingly,  the  hen  has 
been  bred  largely,  and  prizes  awarded  her  almost  wholly,  for 
feather  and  markings,  the  judges  seldom  or  never  dreaming  it 
important  to  know  whether  she  was  capable  of  laying  at  all  01 
not. 

The  writer  was  amazed  to  find  this  state  of  things  when, 
some  years  ago,  he  turned  his  attention  from  managing  woolen 
mill  interests  to  trying  to  manage  a  poultry  yard.  But,  in  spite 
of  the  fact  that  he  was  wholly  unable  to  find  bird  or  strain  that 
were  known  to  be  exceptional  egg  producers,  he  succeeded 
within  six  years  after  starting,  in  building  up  a  flock  that  aver- 
aged annually  considerably  over  200  eggs  per  hen. 

Before  deciding  to  publish  this  work  I  found,  after  diligent 
inquiry  among  the  leading  poultrymen  of  the  United  States 
and  Canada,  and  some  correspondence  reaching  to  other  coun- 
tries, that  there  was  no  known  method — other  than  the  slow 
and  costly  one  of  trap  nesting — of  selecting  birds  of  great  egg 
producing  capacity.  Trap  nesting,  in  addition  to  the  faults 
mentioned,  which  make  it  almost  impracticable  for  the  farm- 
er, had  a  still  more  serious  one  in  the  writer's  judgment;  it 
could  not  trap  nest  roosters,  which  I  have  found  to  be  more 
than  "half  the  flock."  For  this  seemingly  insurmountable  diffi- 
culty I  have  found  an  easy  solution,  and  can  as  readily  identify 
the  male  as  the  female  and  as  unerringly. 

The  facts  of  which  this  document  treat  are  a  discovery,  a 
method,  and  a  development,  all  in  one.  The  happy  inspiration 
and  discovery  came  within  a  few  hours;  but  it  has  reached  this 
workable  and  absolutely  reliable  form  by  a  costly  analytical 
and  experimental  process  extending  through  years.  After  the 
underlying  principle  had  been  found,  it  had  to  be  tested  and 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 


121 


proved  to  my  own  satisfaction.  Then  the  various  objections 
and  criticisms,  which  will  occur  to  many  readers,  had  to  be 
answered  or  met  by  actual  practical  experiences. 

The  method  enables  one,  First — to  easily  and  without  er- 
ror, weed  out  all  the  worthless  birds  from  a  flock;  those  that  da 
not  lay  at  all,  also  that  lay  so  little  that  it  is  a  loss  to  keep  them. 
This  alone  means  millions  to  this  country.  Second — to  separ- 
ate just  as  unerringly  all  pullets  before  they  begin  to  lay:  indi- 
cating the  coming  great  layers,  the  fair  layers,  the  very  poor, 
and  the  ban  en.  The  latter  will  be  found  in  nearly  all  flecks. 
Third — to  tell  those  not  liable  to  lay  when  disposing  of  old  or 
other  hens  for  the  table  or  market,  or  for  other  icasons. 

Beginning  my  investigation — as  I  was  compelled  to — with 
birds  selected  wholly  without  egg  record,  I  was  soon  greatly 
impressed  with  the  dissimilarity  of  formation  of  the  pelvic 
bones  and  surrounding  portions  of  the  body,  particularly  of  the 
former.  Some  I  found  nearly  closed  up,  hard  and  unyielding: 


Cut  No.  1.— A  Leghorn  Hen  Showing  This  Development  Has  the 
Laying  Instinct  at  its  Maximum 


122  THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 

others  barely  admitting  one  finger  between  these  points;  while 
a  very  few  would  easily  admit  the  ends  of  three  fingers  between 
the  tips  of  the  pelvic  bones,  and  these  were  generally  thin, 
tapering  and  elastic.  With  this  clue  I  was  not  long  in  finding 
that  my  great  lavers  were  the  latter  and  my  barren  and  nearly 
barren  ones,  the  first  mentioned.  My  atttention  was  next  forc- 
ibly called  to  this  by  seeing  a  long  row  of  dressed  pullets  and 
hens  in  a  butchering  establishment.  Noticing  the  great  differ- 
ence in  the  formation  I  secured  the  privilege  of  numbering  the 
hens  and  having  the  entrails,  as  they  were  removed,  left  by  the 
side  of  each  bird.  In  every  instance  I  found  my  suspicion  veri- 
fied; the  indications  of  large  numbers  of  eggs  and  ample 
machinery  to  go  with  them,  with  the  wide  pliable  pelvic  bones; 
and  just  the  opposite  condition  with  the  narrow  ones,  the  very 
least,  or  no  egg  indications  whatever,  with  the  bones  very  close 


Cut  No.  2. — This  is  a  Hen  of  Medium  Development.    It  is  a  Fair  Layer. 

together  at  the  points  and  unyielding  to  pressure,  hard,  thick 
and  rounded  in.  This  experiment  was  tried  again  and  again, 
with  different  breeds,  but  never  with  different  results. 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 


123: 


I  was  satisfied  I  was  on  the  right  trail  now,  and  determined 
to  spare  neither  time  nor  money  to  make  sure  I  was  right.  For 
several  years  following  these  discoveries  I  spent  much  time  and 
money  visiting  well  known  poultrymen  and  others,  frequently 
paying  as  high  as  $10  for  best  known  layers  only  to  kill  them  to- 


Cut  No.  3. — Hens  With  this  Development  are  of  Little  or 
No  Value  as  Layers. 

prove  or  disprove  my  conclusions — to  photograph  the  live  bird, 
next  her  dressed  body,  then  her  skeleton.  In  every  instance  I 
found  my  theory  correct.  I  divided  my  own  flock  according  to 
my  findings  into  three  flocks,  and  the  very  first  day's  lay  proved 
my  theory  beyond  question,  so  far  as  one  day  could.  I  then 
divided  other  and  many  flocks ;  but  wherever  they  were  and 
whatever  breed,  without  an  exception  the  same  result  followed. 

Skipping  a  number  of  years,  I  might  say  right  here  that  in 
1904,  I  divided  the  flock  of  Leghorns,  Wyandottes  and  Ply- 
mouth Rocks  at  the  Minnesota  Experiment  Station  at  Crooks- 
ton,  into  three  pens.  First — the  best;  second — medium — to 
poor;  third — very  poor  or  barren.  I  was  about  twenty-five 


124  THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 

minutes  doing  this  in  the  presence  of  Mr.  C.  S.  Greene,  at  that 
time  the  manager  whom  nearly  all  the  leading  poultrymen 
know;  and  Mr.  T.  A.  Hoverstad,  then  Superintendent  of  the 
station.  These  gentlemen  then  had  absolutely  no  faith  in  the 
method!  not  knowing  anything  about  it;  but  were  assured  by 
me  that  if  the  barren  pen  laid  an  egg,  or  either  of  the  others 
failed  to  perform  as  I  indicated,  they  were  at  liberty  to  publish 
the  method  and  me  to  the  world  as  a  fraud.  The  first  day 
showed  pen  No.  1,  45  eggs;  pen  No.  2,  20  eggs;  pen  No  3,  no 


Cut  No.   4. — Showing  a   Convenient  Method  of  Holding   Fowls 
When  Testing  Them. 

-eggs;  and  this  continued  with  slight  variations,  the  entire  per- 
iod of  the  experiment  which  lasted  for  weeks;  though  not  a 
single  egg  appeared  in  the  barren  pen.  The  per  cent  of  eggs  to 
the  100  hens  for  the  entire  time  was:  First  pen,  60  per  cent,  per 
•day;  second  pen,  37;  third  pen  nothing.  But  for  lack  of  room, 
I  might  give  many  more  experiments  and  tests  fully  as  startling 
as  the  above. 

But  to  go  on ;  within  two  years  after  selecting  my  first 
layers  in  this  way,  I  had  a  flock,  the  larger  part  of  which  was 
laying  200  eggs  and  above  per  year,  individual  layers  greatly 
exceeding  this. 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN.  125 

Then  came  another  discovery,  fully  as  important  as  the 
•first.  I  noticed  that,  though  I  hatched  all  my  pullets  from  the 
best  layers'  eggs,  some  of  them  were  exceedingly  poor  layers, 
now  and  then  one  of  them  barren.  I  studied  upon  this  for  a 
long  time;  spent  more  money  and  killed  many  more  birds.  Then 
with  another  idea  which,  as  suddenly  as  the  first  dawned  upon 
me.  I  made  for  the  slaughter  house  once  more.  I  soon  had  a 
row  of  forty  or  so  dressed  male  birds  this  time,  laid  out  before 
me;  and  then  at  a  glance  I  saw  my  long  sought  solution.  There 
was  the  same  great  difference  in  the  pelvic  formation,  found  in 
the  hens.  1  examined  my  roosters  to  find  that  half  of  them 
were  absolutely  worthless.  Why  do  I  say  that  the  rooster 
"is  MORE  than  half  the  flock?"  Because  later  I  found,  as 
many  know,  that  the  female  offspring  take  largely  after  the 
lather,  and  the  male  offspring  after  the  mother.  It  is  so  with 
.all  animals,  and  almost  always  so  in  the  human  family.  Had 
I  used  males  of  my  own  raising,  I  shouM  have  done  better,  but 
1  had  not.  By  the  way,  I  found  two  high  priced  and  "high 
scoring"  birds  used  at  the  Crookston  station  in  1904,  absolute- 
ly without  value,  and  Mr.  Greene  now  agrees  with  me  fully 
that  they  were;  although  he  was  at  the  time  quite  indignant 
when  I  pronounced  his  costly  beauties  worthless. 

I  may  say  here  that,  while  I  found  one  very  good  exhibi- 
tion bird  in  this  experiment  station  flock  that  was  wholly 
worthless  as  a  layer,  I  am, pleased  indeed  to  be  able  to  state 
that  one  bird  which  had  taken  several  prizes  for  markings,  etc., 
I  found  to  be  a  priceless  layer.  I  never  saw  but  one  bird  that 
came  anywhere  near  being  that  hen's  equal ;  I  found  one,  how- 
ever, with  very  poor  markings  that  outranked  any  hen  but 
.her. 

From  this  time  on,  breeding  hastened  matters  fully  as 
tnuch  as  selection,  and  I  soon  had,  or  rather — to  be  accurate—- 
at the  end  of  six  years  from  my  first  start  I  had  a  FLOCK 
AVERAGING  CLOSE  AROUND  250  EGGS  EACH  PER 
YEAR;  A  FLOCK  PAYING  ME  MORE  THAN  DOUBLE 
THE  PROFIT  MY  FIRST  FLOCK  COULD.  During  the 
last  few  years  of  this  period  I  again  and  again,  for  experi- 
mental purposes,  mated  excellent  hens  with  narrow  pelvic 
"boned  males  and  every  time  a  crop  of  pullets  that  varied 
greatly  in  egg  yield,  was  the  result.  Again  and  again  I  bred 
wide  pelvic  boned  males  with  narrow  boned  females,  with  the 


126  THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 

same  results.  But  wide  pelvic  boned  males  with  hens  of  the 
same  formation,  (with  the  exception  now  and  then  at  far  apart 
intervals,  a  freak),  brought  excellent  layers.  Occasionally  a 
male  bird  failed  to  transmit  well;  but  this  I  afterwards  found 
was  only  when  it  was  wholly  lacking  in  masculine  qualities,  as 
denoted  by  the  width  and  depth  of  head  and  back  of  neck, 
with  other  indications  common  to  masculinity  in  all  other 
animals.  From  this  time  I  began  mating  wide  pelvic  boned 
males  with  my  widest  hens  a  marked  increase  in  the  number 
of  great  layers  was  evident;  in  fact  the  third  year  it  was  the 
great  exception  to  find  anything  but  first-class  layers  among: 
the  pullets. 

ITS  ADVANTAGES. 

The  advantages  of  this  method  for  one  owning  even  a. 
small  flock  of  birds,  are  so  apparent  that  space  need  not  be 
given  to  discuss  it.  To  one  having  a  large  flock  it  means,  must 
mean,  a  small  fortune  in  additional  profit,  with  no  more  labor 
or  investment.  To  those  engaged  in  selling  eggs  for  hatching 
it  is  bound  to  mean  everything  in  the  near  future.  It  would  be 
simply  suicidal  for  a  farmer,  or  anyone  depending  upon  the 
eggs  of  his  flock  for  the  profit,  to  be  so  unbusinesslike  as  to 
buy  eggs  for  hatching  from  untested  flocks.  We  do  not  be- 
lieve it  would  be  possible  to  find  one  who  would  do  so,  after 
knowing  from  experiment  stations  and  otherwise  that  the 
method  is  unfailing. 

Some  of  the  advantages  over  trap  nesting  have  been 
stated;  perhaps  the.  strongest  being  that  we  can  not  trap  nest 
roosters.  In  addition  1  might  call  attention  to  the  fact  that 
trap  nesting  a  single  bird  must  extend  over  the  entire  year,  to 
be  at  all  accurate,  and  would  take  many  times  the  amount  of 
time  it  would  require — by  this  method — to  settle  the  laying 
possibilities  of  a  thousand  pullets.  A  little  more  time  would 
settle  the  laying  powers  of  a  large  mixed  flock  at  mixed  laying 
seasons;  which  might  require  two,  or  at  least  three  examina- 
tions, a  week  or  ten  days  apart. 

Again,  a  worthless  pullet  can  be  found  when  she  is  from 
five  to  six  months  old,  and  fatted  and  sold,  without  having  to 
keep  her  a  full  year  in  order  to  do  it  safely.  Besides,  handling 
hens  almost  always  tends  to  disturb  and  discourage  laying. 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN.  127 

Trap  nesting  will,  if  persistently  followed  the  entire  year,  give 
nearly  the  exact  individual  record,  which  is  not  material  to  one 
egg  man  in  a  thousand.  It  can  not  be  exact,  however,  as  a 
shut  in  and  otherwise  disturbed  hen  never  does  her  best. 

This  method  applies  to  other  birds  as  well;  turkeys  for 
instance.  Last  fall  I  bought  two  turkeys  for  experiment.  One 
was  SMALL  with  LARGE  egg  development;  the  other 
LARGE  with  SMALL  egg  development.  The  small  bird  has 
laid  and  hatched  out  two  litters  of  fourteen  each,  the  present 
season,  and  has  at  this  date  laid  twenty-three  eggs  towards  a 
third  litter.  The  large  one  laid  and  hatched  fourteen  eggs  ear- 
ly in  the  season,  and  has  shown  no  signs  of  laying  since ;  but 
has  taken  on  much  more  flesh  than  the  laying  turkey.  This 
would,  in  addition  to  indicating  laying  turkeys,  also  show  what 
to  breed,  if  large  birds  only  are  desired — as  would  nearly  al- 
ways be  the  case  with  turkeys. 

The  absolute  surety  of  never  killing  a  bird  for  market  or 
home  consumption  that  is  laying,  about  to  begin  laying,  or  is 
liable  to  lay  in  the  near  future,  is  another  decided  advantage 
over  the  trap  nest;  and  one  of  the  quickest  available  advan- 
tages of  the  system. 

Again,  the  process  requires  no  investment  in  patent  nests, 
leg  bands  or  other  fixings,  which  amount — in  trapnesting — to 
many  times  the  first  and  only  cost  of  this  method.  For  accur- 
acy in  all  the  advantages  claimed  for  this  method,  we  will 
most  gladly  submit  a  test  with  the  greatest  expert  trap  nester 
that  can  be  selected,  if  it  can  be  so  arranged  that  some  high 
authority  in  poultry  matters  or  some  government  experimental 
station  shall  have  charge  of  it.  This  unconditional  offer  we 
make  to  the  world. 


HOW  TO  SELECT. 

As  the  basic  principle  of  this  method  of  identifying  capac- 
ity for  egg  production  is  the  width  and  relative  condition  of 
the  pelvic  bones  and  surrounding  construction,  it  is  obvious 
that  exact  measurements  can  not  be  given  unless  a  distinct 
breed  be  designated.  A  Cochin  lays  a  large  egg  and  is  built 
accordingly.  A  Bantam  lays  a  small  egg  and  its  pelvic  devel- 


128  THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 

opment,  in  inches,  is  correspondingly  smaller.  It  would  be 
manifestly  misleading  to  apply  the  same  measurements  to  the 
two  birds. 

While  the  ability  to  make  this  allowance  will  come  to  the 
operator  quickly — almost  intuitively,  after  a  very  short  ex- 
perience— I  have  thought  best  to  confine  all  my  descriptions 
and  measurements  here,  to  one  breed  of  fowls  only, — the  Leg- 
horns, these  being  a  medium  sized,  representative  bird,  well 
scattered  over  the  entire  country.  It  will  be  easy  from  the 
measurements  to  work  up  or  down  as  the  birds  on  hand  may 
be  larger  or  smaller.  It  is  all  a  matter  of  comparison,  and,  all 
things  being  equal,  the  bird  with  the  widest  and  most  pliable 
pelvic  bones,  will  be  the  greatest  layer;  while  the  one  with 
very  narrow,  contracted  pelvic  formation  will  lay  little,  if  at 
all.  Behind  the  pelvic  bones  lies  the  egg  machinery,  and  it  will 
be  found  more  abundant  and  roomy  the  wider  the  bones. 


SELECTING  PULLETS. 
(Leghorns.) 

Perhaps  the  best  time  to  select  layers  for  a  flock  is  when 
the  pullets  are  from  four  to  six  months  old.  If  all  are  in  .1 
uniformly  thrifty  condition  at  this  time,  it  is  next  to  impossible 
to  make  a  mistake.  The  best  pullets  at  that  age  should  show 
a  width  of  about  two  inches,  while  the  best  matured  laying 
hens  should  show  a  development  of  about  two  and  one-eighth 
inches.  See  cut  No.  1.) 

Pullets  of  Plymouth  Rocks  and  their  class  should  be  se- 
lected about  a  month  later,  and  then  show  slightly  larger, 
about  two  and  one-eighth  inches.  The  best  Asiatic  pullet 
about  two  and  one-fourth  at  seven  or  eight  months  old  ;  the 
Leghorns  being  earlier  maturers.  At  the  end  of  six  years  oi 
careful  selecting  and  breeding,  I  found  my  Leghorn  pullets 
quite  as  wide  and  well  matured  at  four  months  as  my  first 
rnes  were  at  five  months. 

Second  class  Leghorn  pullets  from  five  to  seven  months 
eld  will  show  a  development  of  about  one  and  five-eights 
inches.  (See  Cut  No.  2.) 

At  six  months  old,  all  Leghorn  pullets  showing  only  an 


THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN.  129 

inch  or  less  pelvic  development  should  be  discarded  regard- 
less of  feather  or  comb.  They  will  never  make  layers.  (See 
Cut  No.  3.) 

All  things  being  equal,  the  earlier  a  pullet  begins  to 
lay,  the  better  and  longer  will  she  lay. 

SELECTING  MATURE  LAYERS. 

The  next  best  time  to  ascertain  a  hen's  laying  qualities 
is  when  the  whole  flock  is  in  the  flush  of  laying;  in  other 
words,  when  about  all  are  at  work.  Those  found  then  to  meas- 
ure about  two  and  one-eighth  inches  are  extremely  good  lay- 
ets.  Some  flockr  have  very  few  of  these  priceless  birds  in 
them,  while  ouiers  have  good  numbers.  From  this  class  of 
layers,  and  above  that  measurement,  and  from  the<c  only, 
should  eggs  be  saved  for  hatching. 

Occa^'ctially  hens  are  found  measuring  as  high  as  two  and 
three-fourths  inches.  These  hens  with  the  best  of  care  will 
lay  as  high  as  280  eggs  per  year.  Those  measuring  about  two 
and  three-eights  may  be  depended  upon  to  go  as  high  as  250. 
The  fact  that  this  kind  of  hen  can  be  found  is  ample 'proof  that 
with  proper  selection  they  can  be  bred  in  large  numbers. 

Hens  found  at  this  time  measuring  from  one  and  seven- 
eights  to  two  inches  are  real  good  layers,  and  should  not  be 
discarded  if  one  wishes  to  build  up  an  at  all  large  flock;  but 
they  should  not  be  bred  from.  Hens,  in  the  flush  of  laying, 
measuring  only  one  and  one-fourth  to  one  and  one-half  inches, 
arc  poor;  and  those  showing  from  an  inch  down  should  be 
discarded  regardless  of  shape  or  color. 

A  large  enough  flock  of  the  first  mentioned  hens  would 
make  any  poor  man  rich.  The  second  kind  would  keep  them- 
selves and  their  owners  going;  while  many  of  the  last  named 
class  would  make  a  rich  man  poor. 

Poor  layers  kept  well  and  fed  a  large  variety  of    scraps 

and  other  foods,  will  sometimes  make  pretty  fair  egg  records 
for  a  short  time ;  and  birds  of  the  best  quality,  under  exception- 
ally hard  conditions,  will  make  poor  records.  There  are  also 
occasional  freaks  in  both  extremes  of  measurements,  but  they 
are  so  infrequent  as  to  not  be  at  all  important.  Approximately, 


130  THE     CALL     OP     THE     HEN. 

280  egg  hens  that  measure  as  high  as  two  and  five-eights 
inches  in  the  flush  of  laying,  will  show  about  three-eights  to 
one-half  inch  less  when  not  laying,  and  this  shrinkage  in 
measurement,  will  apply  to  all  other  grades  in  about  this  pro- 
portion. 


SELECTING  FOR  FALL  MARKETING. 

We  do  not  like  to  kill  birds  about  to  begin  laying,  that 
are  laying,  or  really  good  ones  that  are  just  through  laying; 
particularly  when  there  are  plenty  in  the  flock  that  do  not 
come  under  any  of  these  heads. 

In  this  alone,  the  cost  of  this  method,  when  once  well 
understood,  can  be  saved  several  times  in  a  single  season  with 
a  good  sized  flock  of  birds. 

While  the  exceptionally  good  layers  can  be  told  readily 
and  at  almost  any  time,  laying  or  not,  and  an  absolutely  worth- 
less bird  can  be  told  the  same  way,  there  is  a  time,  just  when 
the  real  good  layer  is  resting  and  the  common  to  poor  layei 
is  doing  her  best,  when  they  come — for  a  short  time  only — 
close  together  in  pelvic  appearance. 

While  it  is  not  safe  to  kill  a  bird  that  measures  one  and 
one-eighth  inches  or  over,  it  is  possible  for  a  very  fair  layer  to 
not  be  much  wider  than  that  at  the  close  of  laying  out  her  lit- 
ter. Some  good  layers,  that  in  the  flush  of  laying  will  meas- 
ure one  and  three-quarters  to  two  inches,  at  the  close  of  their 
laying  period  will  sometimes  close  up  to  about  one  and  one- 
eighth  inches.  A  very  poor  layer  in  the  flush  of  her  laying 
time,  might  be  one  and  one  fourth  to  one  and  one  eighth  in- 
ches, so  care  must  be  taken  at  this  period  not  to  con- 
found the  two  conditions,  which  do  not  exist  at  any  other 
time.  This  is  referred  to  in  the  introduction.  To  wholly  pre- 
vent this — when  it  is  desired  to  save  every  at  all  good  layer — 
it  is  well  to  make  two,  or  possibly  three  examinations,  a  week 
or  so  apart.  In  this  way  there  will  be  no  danger  of  confound- 
ing the  one  about  to  begin  laying,  with  the  one  about  to  quit ; 
ind  the  poor  layer  can  be  told  from  the  good  one. 

When  killing  a  whole  flock  at  two  or  three  years  old,  as 
many  do,  no  hen  measuring  one  and  one-eighth  inches  and  un- 


THE     CALL     OP     THE     HEN.  131 

der  is  worth  keeping;  particularly  is  this  true  if  the  birds  have 
oeen  well  fed  and  stimulated  to  about  their  full  capacity.  No 
hen  of  any  value  for  egg  production  will  have  an  egg  in  her  at 
this  time  and  measure  so  small  unless  she  is  a  slow,  infrequent 
layer  at  her  best.  Sometimes  this  kind  of  a  hen  with  very 
small  measurements  will  be  found  laying  an  occasional  egg  late 
in  the  season. 


SELECTING  ROOSTERS. 

We  have  said  how  important  it  is  to  have  males  of  the 
right  formation,  to  mate  with  the  great  layers  for  breeding 
purposes.  We  need  not  emphasize  this.  It  is  so  evident  that 
we  can  not  trap  nest  a  rooster,  and  equally  so  that  years  of 
trap  nesting  hens  can  be  ruinously  upset  in  a  day  by  crossing 
with  an  inferior  male,  that  it  would  reflect  upon  our  estimation 
of  the  reader's  intelligence  to  say  more  about  it. 

I  have  found  Leghorn  roosters,  that  measured  one  and 
three-fourths  inches,  but  they  are  rare  and  priceless.  A  good 
m-uured  bird  should  measure  one  and  one-eighth  inches  and 
a  pretty  fair  one  an  inch.  I  would  not  use  one  that  measured 
less  if  I  could  possibly  help  it.  Many  fine  looking  birds  meas- 
uie  only  one-half  inch,  but  such  ones  will  ruin  the  offspring  of 
the  best  layers,  and  should  be  discarded  whatever  their  quali- 
fications in  feather,  tip  of  comb  or  anything  else. 

Now  and  then  the  objection  reaches  us  that  the  high  type 
roosters  referred  to  can  not  be  found.  I  have  found  them  as 
ethers  have,  and  I  believe  there  are  nearly  or  quite  as  many  in 
proportion  as  there  are  of  the  250  and  above  hens;  but  we  do 
not  save  all  the  roosters  as  we  do  all  the  pullets,  and  they  are 
correspondingly  scarce  among  mature  males.  By  selecting  al- 
ways from  large  numbers  of  males  before  they  are  killed  off, 
this  objection  will  be  largely  and  quickly  overcome. 

The  fact  that  males  of  this  class  can  be  selected,  is  of  it- 
self a  discovery  sufficient  to  revolutionize  the  whole  poultry 
business  without  the  examination  of  a  single  hen — were  time 
enough  taken — but  the  two  together  bring  absolute  and  imme- 
diate results. 


132  THE     CALL     OF     THE     HEN. 

In  the  hands  of  a  slightly  experienced  or  an  at  all  com- 
petent person,  the  element  of  chance  is  entirely  removed  by 
this  method  of  selecting  layers  and  males;  (and  one  is  just  as 
sure  of  the  results  sought  as  that  a  hen  will  die  if  her  head  is 
cut  off. 

We  ask  but  one  thing;  that  judgment  be  withheld  till  this 
method  be  tried.  If  the  tests  are  fairly  conducted  there  can  be 
no  failure. 

Crude  infringements  and  imitations  of  this  discovery  and 
system — as  of  everything  else  of  value  that  has  cost  years  of 
investigation  and  experimenting — are  liable  to  spring  up,  but 
the  safety  and  economy  of  going  direct  to  the  fountain  head 
need  scarcely  be  suggested. 

Dated  November  20,  1904. 

THE  END. 


